Mediocre Notre Dame wants no part of mediocre bowl game

From the Chicago Tribune:

Barring a severe last-minute change of heart by the team during a Friday meeting, the Irish are not expected to participate in a bowl this season. One source familiar with the decision told the Tribune the choice already has been made. But rousing, across-the-board sentiment to play in a bowl during a Friday meeting with players and coaches might be enough to alter that course. "I agree (no bowl) is the likely outcome, but we are reconvening the leadership counsel to make a final decision," athletic director Jack Swarbrick said. ... Thanks to rules that dictate all seven-win teams must be slotted before the six-win Irish, the options essentially boil down to the Dec. 26 Little Caesars Pizza Bowl in Detroit or the Jan. 6 GMAC Bowl in Mobile. Both of those games offer $750,000 payouts, hardly a windfall for Notre Dame. Nothing is set yet, officially, but it will take a tidal wave of pro-bowl sentiment Friday for the Irish to play a postseason game this year.

So Notre Dame is turning down money that could theoretically help pay off Charlie Weis' hefty buyout and presumably also eschewing those extra weeks of practice bowl-eligible coaches always bloviate about just because their season fell apart and they feel like they're above a trip to Detroit or Mobile. At least that's how we read it, and it seems a little high and mighty for our tastes.

UPDATE: Jon notes in the comments that a $750K payout is probably a losing-money proposition for Notre Dame, which a little follow-up research seems to support. Our only comeback to that is that going to Detroit is still priceless.