Ludwick was never coming to ND.
He is entrenched in at Utah & he used ND to get what amounts to be pretty much a lifetime contract at Utah.
The money wasn’t a factor as much as the transparency of how it was presented. Utah & Ludwig presented his buyout as one thing & then last second updated the number. The media messed up (shocker) on their facts when reporting. They made it sound like ND didn’t do their due diligence and failed to read the correct contract. That’s false. ND receives a contract from his agent or himself, that’s how it works. ND can’t assume anything or guess, they can only legally offer off of the official contract sent to them by him or his agent. The contract sent was not accurate. ND can’t help that. Then an updated contract was sent & it was a slap in the face of ND because that’s bad business.
ND could have (and would have) paid the buyout if it was correct the first time around.
But ND refused to be played.
Obviously, Ludwick, his people & Utah are going to play it like he turned ND down & ND is cheap. And of course the media are that up.
Ludwick & his agent used ND to get him more money from Utah, & were not honest with their dealings with ND.