On Tuesday, ESPN's Adam Schefter dropped a news nugget about Notre Dame's newest NFL free agent signee. No, it had nothing to do with Alohi Gilman or Durham Smythe, both former Irish football players who inked deals with new teams last week.
Instead, Schefter reported that Carson Towt, a 6-foot-7, 250-pound power forward on the Notre Dame men's basketball team, had signed a deal to play tight end for the Indianapolis Colts.
The switch from basketball to football has been on Towt's mind for months, even while he averaged 5.9 points, 9.0 rebounds and 1.7 assists for the Irish on the hardwood last season.
"It's been quite the journey," Towt said. "We kind of knew, maybe, at the beginning of my basketball season, that we were going to explore this, but we were trying to figure out the right way to go about it and the most fruitful way to do it."
Towt spent much of the last year doing his research, looking for someone with experience representing dual-sport athletes. He reached out to Jack Bechta and Jack Tabb and eventually signed with their agency, JB Sports, on Feb. 23, right before the NFL Combine began in Indianapolis.
The proximity of South Bend, Ind., to Indianapolis allowed him to begin his transition to football at the end of the basketball season.
"I was out at the combine a couple of weeks ago with my agents, Jack Bechta and Jack Tabb," Towt said. "So, not doing workouts because I was in the middle of basketball season with Notre Dame, but just for meetings with teams and meeting some of these guys out here."
Since Towt didn't play college football, he isn't eligible to enter the upcoming NFL Draft, unlike Notre Dame football players Jeremiyah Love, Jadarian Price, Malachi Fields, and other prospects who participated in the NFL Combine.
That allowed Towt to get a jump on other soon-to-be undrafted free agents, who must wait until after all 2026 NFL Draft picks have been made on April 25 before they can sign with a team.
"I'm not draft eligible," Towt said. "I'm a free agent, so it made all of this possible."
What gives Towt the confidence to pursue a career in football despite having zero experience on the gridiron? Why not go overseas to play basketball or start a career in something other than sports?
Despite his prowess on the glass, Towt often served as an undersized and inadequate rim protector in college. He got by with brute strength and effort more than his physical abilities.
He believes those traits translate even better to football. Suddenly, his 6-foot-7 frame present an advantage.
According to Joker Magazine, the average height of an NFL tight end was 6 feet and 4.4 inches tall in 2024.
Colts new TE Carson Towt highlights. Can he play DE? I like his swim move. pic.twitter.com/XPpDnsY5rl
— CLew 🏈🏀⚾️🥊 (@droppedballs_fb) March 17, 2026
"I pride myself on dirty work and rebounding and being physical," Towt said. "So, I think football almost honors those a little bit better than basketball does. So that's why we're here today."
Towt isn't the first former high-level college basketball player to pursue a career in the NFL as a tight end. Most famously, Antonio Gates played football and basketball at Kent State before embarking on an All-Pro career as a tight end for the Los Angeles Chargers.
Similarly, Jimmy Graham played four seasons of basketball at Miami from 2005 to 2009 before finishing his collegiate career with a season of football with the Hurricanes, snagging 17 catches for 213 yards and five touchdowns in 13 games.
The New Orleans Saints drafted Graham in the third round of the 2010 draft before he went on to have his own All-Pro career.
Towt wanted to follow a path similar to Graham's after spending the first six years of his college career playing basketball at Northern Arizona, where he led the nation with 12.4 rebounds per game and was named second-team All-Big Sky in 2025.
"We had talks while I was in the portal with my compliance at Northern Arizona," Towt said, "and we figured out that I didn't have football eligibility this last year, so it ended up making it an easy decision to just play basketball, but we came pretty close."
Thus, the player with the most apt comparison to Towt's journey is his new Colts teammate, Mo Alie-Cox, a three-time Atlantic 10 all-defensive team member at VCU from 2015 to 2017. The 6-foot-5 forward signed with the Colts shortly after his college basketball career ended, despite last playing organized football as a freshman in high school.
Alie-Cox spent his first season out with an injury or on the practice squad before the Colts elevated him to the active roster in 2018 and continued to fight for his spot on the team until 2022, when he signed a three-year, $18 million contract extension.
The now 32-year-old tight end has played in at least 15 games in each of the last seven seasons and is the second-longest tenured member in Indianapolis after resigning in the offseason.
"I know his story," Towt said. "I actually called with Mo, maybe, I want to say it was late last year, maybe November, December. When we kind of knew we were going down this path, I reached out to him. I DM'd him. He DM'd me right back, followed me back, DM'd me right back. And he said, 'Dude, yeah, let's hop on a call.'
"We talked for probably half an hour, and I just wanted to hear his experience. I wanted to hear his journey, how he did it, how he navigated the spot I was in then and then the spot I'm in now, and just how he went about the process.
"I hear nothing but unbelievable things about Mo. So, I'm excited to officially meet him in person and get to work with him because you can't get a better success story in the most recent success story."
More importantly, that means the Colts understand how to develop someone with Towt's skillset. Tom Manning was the franchise's tight ends coach in 2018 and then returned to serve in the same role in 2023.
Now Manning will have the opportunity to turn Towt, another former college basketball player, into another NFL mainstay, and he has the blueprint to do it.
"Tom Manning said it, too; he's like, 'We had to teach Mo everything.' He didn't know anything, just like you don't know much about football," Towt said. "So, I think it was just cool to hear, okay, he's actually in, you hear the story and you're like, 'Okay, maybe he's in a different position.'
"No, he actually had to start from Square One, too. So I thought that was special and can relate to that."