Fire Weis? Ouch!

Word on the street says Charlie Weis is done at Notre Dame. Evidently he has worn out his welcome in South Bend as the early success that the Irish enjoyed under Weis is now gone. It was the immediate success, on the heels of mediocre football under Tyron Willingham, that rewarded Weis with a huge, and premature, contract extension to the tune of 10 years. For all the smart people that reside at South Bend, the extension was a pretty significant lack of intellect on behalf of someone. Of course all fingers point to the athletic director when a decision like that is made. However, I have to think their were a few boosters and board members that wet their pants trying to convince the administration to lock Weis up since they had seemingly found their golden child. Coming from the insanely successful New England Patriot organization, Weis was viewed as the ray of hope to bring Notre Dame back to the glory days. And to lock Weis up for the foreseeable future was, at the time, a mandatory thing to do to solidify the Irish's bright future. So they thought. Now, the Irish have fallen back to their lackluster ways of recent past and the Domers are no longer content to entrust their future to Weis' direction.

Before I proceed, let me first say this - Notre Dame is no longer the be-all-end-all of college football like it was in the 50's and even through the 80's. This is also true for catholic high school football. This is key. Because catholic high schools are private, and heavily funded, they attracted (and still do) a lot of football talent. It was easy for Notre Dame to pinpoint the catholic high schools for their recruiting base. And what catholic high school phenom wouldn't want to go play for Notre Dame? If another college came calling, they were automatically second fiddle to Notre Dame. These "other" colleges had to search high and low for prospects at a time when recruiting wasn't a well funded aspect of the the football department. If a kid wasn't in their backyard, the process to identify top talent was inefficient at best. To sustain success under this process was almost impossible. Notre Dame, on the other hand, could tap into the catholic system year-in and year-out.

College football has now evolved into a national landscape. TV, and now the internet, has evened the playing field and exposed and commercialized many other programs besides Notre Dame. Over the last 40 years, the budgets for other programs have caught up with Notre Dame. Facilities, across the board, have gotten better. Recruiting has become more intense and better funded. While there is still great talent to be found in the catholic high school system for Notre Dame, they have more competition and can't simply send something on their letterhead and expect the recruit to show up in the fall. And let's be honest...South Bend is no Tallahassee, Austin or Gainsville when it comes to climate and booty call options. This reality is something Notre Dame faithful have a hard time coming to grips with. And because they can't, they think money can solve all their problems. I'm not saying they shouldn't try. They should, of course. They can still be successful - just not to the consistant levels that they feel they should be, or have been.

So, back to the situation at hand. From what I've heard, it will take some 19 million dollars to FIRE Weis. On TOP of this will be the money they will have to throw at their next coach. And to think they are going to skimp on their offering because of the money going to Weis and bring in some up-and-coming assistant to fray the costs is just not going to happen. They are going to go after one of the best coaches in the nation in order to right the ship. The two biggest names being floated about are Urban Meyer of Florida and Brian Kelly of Cincinnati. Meyer would have a higher price tag but Kelly wouldn't be cheap either. Assuming Meyer says no (why would he say yes?) let's say they go after Kelly. I assume it will take a five-year contract in the neighborhood of $15 million to get Kelly on board. So, the Domers are in for a cool $35 million over the next five years for their football coach!

Here's my question: What if Kelly falls flat on his face? What if the Irish continue their futile ways under Kelly and go 6-6 and 5-7 in Kelly's first two years? How patient are the faithful going to be with the new guy? At some point, they're going to be stuck with their coach. You can't think that if Kelly goes backward that Notre Dame would be ready to go through all this again, can you?

Let's just go through it real quick. Let's say that after three years Kelly is out. That means Weis will still be on the hook for roughly $8 mil and Kelly $6. So, before they higher a new coach at that point, they would be coughing up $7 million a year. Throw on another $5 mil per at that point for the next sexy name and you're paying $12 million per year for your head coach. Ouch!

I'm sure all the rich Irish alumns will just refinance their house and send the check.

This mentality doesn't have anything to do with the financial crisis the economy is in does it? Microcosm actually. If my example comes true I think the value of the Notre Dame diploma is going to be losing value.