9 things Charlie Weis can buy with the $19 million Notre Dame paid him to leave

It’s been nearly eight years since the most lucrative buyout in college football history came about — former Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis’. The former Fighting Irish head coach was promised close to $19 million to leave South Bend back in 2009. On Monday, the Indy Star obtained the University of Notre Dame’s 2015 federal tax returns, which included the final buyout’s figure of $18,967,960.

The amount of the final installment — $2,054,742 for the 2015 calendar year — was disclosed on Notre Dame’s new federal tax return, which was released Monday.

The filing did not mention this would be the end of Weis’ payments the way the others did. Previous filings noted Weis was being paid through December 2015 as part of the termination agreement.

Weis finished with a 35-27 record as the Fighting Irish’s head coach, and he went on to coach Kansas from 2012-14, during which he was still getting paid a ridiculous amount by Notre Dame.

Naturally, given the absurdity of this nearly $19 million figure, we came up with a list of things Weis can buy with his buyout.

1. Katy Perry’s Beverly Hills mansion: The singer purchased the home last month according to TMZ, and it’s a whopping 5,427 square feet with five bedrooms and five and a half bathrooms. Oh, and her neighbors are Adele, Nicole Kidman, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, and Cameron Diaz. Hear that Weis?! You could have Cameron Diaz as your neighbor!

2. The $19 million International Space Station’s toilet: This thing is very high-tech, and it even has a heated seat, as well as a remote control.

3. Weis can almost pay both Nick Saban and Jim Harbaugh’s salaries: Saban will be paid $11 million during the 2017 season thanks to his $4 million contract signing bonus he inked with Alabama earlier this month. Harbaugh’s annual salary is $9 million, part of which includes a life insurance policy.

4. Antonio Brown’s signing bonus: The Pittsburgh Steelers wideout signed an extension worth $68 million last month, making him the highest-paid receiver in the NFL. Brown will receive $18.5 million over three years.

5. Thousands of sun conures, one of Weis’ wife’s favorite birds: In an interview with ESPN from August of last year, Weis’ home in Wellington, Fla., was described as very animal-friendly. He even has a sun conure, which according to Wikipedia is “a medium-sized brightly colored parrot native to northeastern South America.”

They live in a gated community designed for equestrian living. They share their spread with six horses, four dogs, a cat and a type of parrot called a sun conure, which dive-bombs people when they walk through the house. Weis loves his wife. He tolerates the horses and the dogs and the cat. He's not a fan of the bird.

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Birdfarm.com lists the starting price for a sun conure at $399, so with almost $19 million to spend, Weis could go to town.

6. He could hire Alabama and Florida State to play each other: The two are set to play each other in the upcoming Chick-fil-A kickoff, which already looks like it’ll be the biggest opening game ever. Both teams will receive $5 million for participating in the matchup, so Weis could pay them to play and still have some left over!

7. Match Idaho’s total athletic department revenue: Per USA Today’s NCAA revenue figures for 2014-15, the University of Idaho’s athletic department got just over $19 million in total revenue.

8. Target’s settlement with MasterCard from 2013: Remember that cyber attack from a few years ago that compromised up to 40 million accounts? Target ending up paying $19 million for losses incurred.

9. He can now afford to fire Charlie Weis: This has to be the one that Weis agrees with the most, right? After all, Notre Dame paid a ridiculous amount of cash for...35 wins.