Notre Dame stuck with Weis, and that may not be all bad

Usually I don't feel passionately enough about college football to write about it, unless it's whining about the lack of a playoff - which me and every other columnist who has ever lived feels very passionate about.

But there's something else that has caught my attention. Apparently, Charlie Weis is at the center of the college football universe. Which makes perfect sense, because Notre Dame football has been so relevant over the last 20 years.

(Note: In that previous paragraph, I noticed at least two places for a fat joke. Maybe it's because I want to play it safe. Maybe it's the mixture of 47 medicines I'm on because of a severe allergy attack, but I'm not going to make any jokes about Weis' battle with his weight. But I won't stop you from making your own.)

(Note on the note: I wish we lived in a day where someone could have a severe allergy attack and not automatically be assumed to be carrying some mutant form of H1N1. But I digress.)

Weis is still owed trillions of dollars on his Notre Dame contract awarded after offensively coordinating the Patriots. And in his first year in charge at Notre Dame, they made a BCS bowl. But that was using Tyrone Willingham's players, by and large. In his second year, they made a BCS bowl. Things were great.

Then came the 3-9 season. Then 7-6. Finally, with a cupcake schedule - by Notre Dame standards - this was the year the Irish would return to prominence.

Fast forward to the present, and the Irish need a win against a suddenly tough Stanford team to finish above .500. A loss and they're 6-6 heading into a bowl, such as the Hawaii Bowl they played in last year.

So fire Weis, right? That's not so simple. Depending on who you read, a buyout would cost Notre Dame anywhere from $4.5 million to $18 million. The latter number is the more accepted one, but some claim it could be closer to the first number.

That's why you don't give someone a 10-year extension after one year on the job. Especially someone who hadn't proven himself as a head coach - he had Willingham's players and got the job based on the success of the only NFL team that's been caught in an illegal-taping cheating scandal this decade.

Still, it doesn't matter who Notre Dame brings in. Bring in Urban Meyer, even though he said he's happy in Florida. Who would imagine running a championship machine in the Sunshine State - albeit in the most undesirable city the state has to offer - has more allure than a program in the middle of Indiana that hasn't sniffed glory in almost three decades? Bring in Brian Kelly. Heck, even bring back George O'Leary.

Notre Dame has this pesky thing called academic standards. It's a hassle, I know. But as long as they require students to actually go to class and get good grades, they're going to have a hard time recruiting dullards. Advantage, Florida. And Miami. And Ohio State. And Texas. And Arizona. And Oklahoma. And pretty much every D-I school.

Combine that with the lack of a conference, and the Irish face a long recruiting road.

Notre Dame prides itself on its academic standards, as it should. They can be successful, periodically, without sacrificing those standards. But the college football landscape isn't what it was is the ’60s, ’70s or even ’80s and there's no going back.

Weis seems happy, the players respond to him, and he's a great fit (ahem). Plus the school is going to pay him millions anyway. As long as another 3-9 season doesn't happen - that's hard to defend, but they didn't fire him after that - let him ride out his contract.