This Just In… No One Knows Squat About the Buyout

We have yet another figure on Weis buyout now courtesy of WNDU.  According to the South Bend NBC affiliate, Weis’s buyout is actually in the $20 million range.

As we first told you on NewsCenter 16 at 6, a source very close to the situation tells WNDU that the price to buy Weis out of the remaining seven years of his contract is around $20 million.

The source also says that Notre Dame does not appear to have the money right now and could be using the next week to try and raise more funds from alums.

So let’s review reports on the buyout over the last 5 days:

  • Wednesday – Chicago Tribune reports the buyout is around $4.5 and source called it “loose change.”
  • Wednesday – ESPN responds that the buyout is “stupefying” and actually around $16 million.
  • Saturday – Irish Illustrated reports that the buyout is actually around $10 million.
  • Sunday – Michael Rothstein of Fort Wayne Journal reports the buyout is around $12 million.
  • Sunday – WNDU reports the buyout to be in the $20 million range.

It’s official.  No one really knows what the hell they are talking about in regards to this buyout.  My guess is there’s a whole lot of good and bad information floating around out there about this buyout and that we may never actually know what the real buyout value is.  I do know one thing.  The silence from the Notre Dame athletic department right now is deafening.

At this point though, I fully expect to hear a couple more news outlets come up with their own buyout figure.  Heck, the range in buyout figures is already $15 million from the smallest to the highest so how wrong can anyone else really be on the matter?

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19 Comments

  1. jaldana,
    Do you really know anything about Notre Dame? First of all it’s not called Touchdown Jesus University. Do you even know what Touchdown Jesus refers to? And USC must be glad you don’t claim to be an alum, because your post of Dec 2, above was an example of very poor writing.
    And Notre Dame doesn’t offer it’s football players a semester with a single course in ballroom dancing and more time with Jessica Simpson, than on campus. Notre Dame doesn’t celebrate alums like O.J. the murderer, or Marcus Allen, or Reggie Bush. Notre Dame welcomes minorities but doesn’t lower the bar expecting lower achievement from them. From comments on Pete Carroll’s website and your writing here, it’s apparent that USC expects a lower academic level of achievement. At Notre Dame you would be corrected for using the word “axe” instead of “ask”. Jaldana, I have been to USC, and am aware of what goes on there. Lived in the LA area for a few years. Can you say you know anything first hand about Notre Dame? I invite you to stay out of this website. Watts needs you. And you need to learn to write.

  2. I have never claim to be a USC alumni, but i am smart enough to know when someone has not learn on how to lose with CLASS. I am assuming that N.D doesn’t offer this course at TOUCH DOWN JESUS university. Just maybe it should be rename to just a field goal university.

  3. jaldana,
    Can you or anyone understand what you just wrote? Obviously, the writing classes at USC don’t teach much basic grammar. Your paragraph is incoherent.

  4. C-DOG Thank’s for the lecture on the novel and humble beginning at (our mother) ND, but what i don’t understand is that the university of notre dame is referred as TOUCH DOWN JESUS and how can you not know that college football has become the minor league of the NFL. Just face it C-DOG when was the last time you’re academic cources received millions for televising on saturday mourning’s? but your institution of higher learning has received millions and millions to show case you’re one time very prestigious football team. Would you be on the blog if you’re team was 10-0 and just defeated USC 38-3 AND 38-0 last year ? i don’t think so.

  5. folklore and jaldana,
    We are talking about ND football. This is not like talking about football at a school like Tennessee, Miami Fl., Florida, or USC. The reason football exists at Notre Dame is specifically to advance the academic and religious causes. Unlike those other schools, if you separate football at Notre Dame from the rest of campus life, it ceases to be Notre Dame football. Also realize Notre Dame was founded because Catholics were being assasinated in the east coast cities. Then when the victims of the potato famine in Ireland took root in the US, Notre Dame and it’s newly successful football program gave them a rallying cry. but always it was linked to getting an education to rise up in American fashion. Now I know the southern schools are improving, but still there seems to be this idea that it is OK to use athletes in a sports program that is more or less separate from the University. And I have friends that grew up in the South and many did state that primary and secondary schools still were not at a level expected elsewhere. My point is that while Weis’ tenure is in question, people are trashing Notre Dame’s football program. For those of us who have been and are connected to the school through three or four generaations, this is an attack on the university itself by outsiders who do not understand why Notre Dame exists and how it operates.

    If it’s just football, that what the pros are for. College football is to represent the total body of the institution. And for all of you who are jumping in from other fan sites, Notre Dame means Our Mother, otherwise known as Mary, the Mother of God.

    God Bless Notre Dame!

  6. C-Dog. You are correct! and I agree there is more to life than football.

    However, problem is this is football we are talking about! Not who is number 1 in education. The two have NOTHING in common. Also southern schools are no more stupid or smart than any other school from any other region. That is a stereotype

  7. jaldana,
    It’s a known fact that to be considered a student at a university, you have to take at least 12 credit hours per semester. Matt Leinert, USC, and all the sports writers openly talked about how Leinert only took one class during football season and that class was ballroom dancing. You tell me that’s an education. This week they talked about how Mark Sanchez spends most of his nights studying football plays and wathcing film. Student athletes are only allowed 20 hours spent on all athletic activities. He’s spending much more, but not on his studies. I make no excuses for ND losing, but there is no way USC only spends the alloted time on football. I was at ND when Lou was there, and I know for a fact that Tim Brown, Mark Green, and several other players who lived in our dorm studied very hard, in fact they had no free time. So I make know excuses.
    but my current work takes me overseas and I see that other countries are going to kick our @ss because they set the bar higher. I lived in LA and know how bad the ghettos are there. But we’ve set our bar for achievment so low as to think a fake education will suffise. The bar is higher in India, China, and always has been in Japan and Europe.
    You who attend other universities need to know that sports at ND are a vehicle for further education and to advance truly good causes. Sports are not an end unto themselves at Notre Dame. You can’t truly understand Notre Dame and have no business coming to our blog sites unless you understand this. I hope you can rise above the filth and mediocrity in LA, jaldana.

  8. Tham C-DOG what’s up with all the hate, you have no proof that USC studen’t athletes do not attend real classes if that is true that would be a ncaa violation. I can remember when LOU and ND would BEAT USC like a DRUM and i never heard anyone from ND accused USC off any kind off misconduct, untill NOW. I just wonder if it’s because off USC success on the field of play. So please show some CLASS and take you’re @ss whopping like a man we DID

  9. ND had the same standards when Lou was the coach. Let’s expose what happens to all the talent amassed by Pete Carroll at USC. It’s become more or less public knowledge that USC football players don’t attend real classes and aren’t required to study at a true college level. So who hires the ones who don’t make the pros? Point that out and then point out that at Notre Dame, you’ll get an education that makes you employable regardless of whether the NFL calls you or not. I’d think twice before hiring anyone from USC or from any Southern school. We have to compete globally.

  10. If Weis does leave what then?

    Who ever gets this job will be at a disadvantage. You cannot compete with Texas, FL, and the likes with Harvard admission standards. I am a Notre Dame fan through and through, and I am Catholic. I live in the South I see some of the recruits that Texas, AL etc get, even know some of them. These recruits will pull a 19-20 at BEST on the ACT…

    How does ND compete with that? Believe me it does matter when you talk to a kid and he tells you “That place is to hard” My 2 cents

  11. One news article earlier today mentioned that Urban Meyer’s contract stipulates a specific period he can talk w other schools, beginning at the end of the regular season. That would be the SEC Champ game next Saturday. Perhaps that’s why Swarb is saying “we won’t talk for a week”. Or, perhaps it’s because he’s pretty smart and wants to look at the problem critically and not in the heat of emotion. By any metric, though, I can’t imagine a scenario which dictates that keeping Charlie is the answer. He is the last vestige of the Kevin White incompetence.

  12. We all know we’re just talking and have no control. Personally this is a great site because no one gets out of hand.

    I’m not paying much attention to the rumors because what happens to Weis is not as important as what happens after Weis. Weis will land on his feet one way or another. ND could agree to donate the rest of his buyout to the Hanna and Friends ranch, an honorable cause. Or Weis gets humble learns from his mistakes and improves to become the best coach since Lou, ( or Ara maybe ).

    But how ND finds and hires the next guy will determine whether the program will rebound in the next 20 years. They would like to get lucky and get a Pete Carroll, but who doesn’t cheat. I’d like to see Skip Holtz, Chris Peterson, or the Utah coach on the short list. But keep it quiet. The last two changes were freak shows. Unlike others here, I think ND should keep this thing so quiet, no one has any idea what they will do until it’s already done. Only the next coach and the AD should know.
    I’d also like to see Tenuta and Brown retained. Heck maybe put them on the list too. Brown might be the guy Willingham wasn’t and ND could quell the bogus racist claims. Brown really seems like he’s got a winning attitude.

    I’d like to see Weis stay if he gets ris of Latina and the strength coach, as stated above, but I’d want to see Aaron Taylor made offensive line coach. He’s got a link to the Joe Moore era.

    Either way, Go Irish!!!

  13. I think we might as well stay with CW and see if the “evaluation” by Swarbick includes axing Latina and the strenght coach. It is disturbing that Alabama is a young team and winning and we arent with probably just as good talent at WR, QB and RB. CW can recruit, in a new regime i might even keep him on as an offensive coordinator. The problem in my opinion is that he isnt a motivator and we dont have a line on either side of the ball which hurts us. We just have never had a complete team. In his first two years we were great but had no DB’s. Now we have DB’s but no lines. Its frustrating.

  14. Add Channel 22 Irish Sports Report to the list, I’m sure they are “conjuring up sales” and suffering from a severe case of acatalepsia also.

    Frankie, reminds me of jury duty, is’nt this fun?

  15. What sales are we drumming up? This is a free site without any membership fees. We are not posting any rumors at this point and are only posting stories from credible sources. All of the buyout talk has come from sources such as the Chicago Tribune, ESPN, Irish Illustrated, WNDU, and the Fort Wayne Journal – those are all credible sources.

    Believe I have heard PLENTY of rumors over the past few days, but have refrained from posting anything until there is something to report.

  16. Why all this conterversity about CW. He will be back next year for sure. You guys don’t know anything for a fact, justs conjuring up sales. Same on you.

  17. Okay, if you all remember the point of the buyout was to assure everyone that Weis was not going to leave under his own accord to the NFL. It could very well be that if he were to be let go by ND that is buyout would be (100-n)% of his salary and for another team to buy it out from the university would be 100% of his salary. So there could be some hint of truth to the $4.5mil AND $20mil.

  18. I think the silence is disturbing. They are basically hanging Weis out . I am losing a lot or respect for the Athletic Dept. If they are shopping around make the friggin announcement. If they intend on keeping Weis squash the rumours so as to not negatively impact recruiting. However my feeling is this latest round of BS has already damaged ND’s credibility further…

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