Correct. Ludwig was their #1 target and they never would have interviewed him if the buyout was problematic. Ludwig said no. This is PR because ND didn’t get their guy.
You could substitute the name Urban for Ludwig, reset the date of the article to January 2005, and it’s the exact same. Irish have lowballed 2 excellent Ute coaches and whiffed on both.
For a school that paid Charlie Weiss 19 million to get lost it is shocking that they wouldn’t be willing to pay 2.8 million for Ludwig. I believe it’s just a PR move to save face and instead Ludwig told them no thank you