just to buy out of the contract.

There were only two viable options at this point:

A. Take a token payout and be done with ND after the two original games.

B. Take what will probably be the largest single-game payout we've ever gotten to play them one more time in Vegas and call it good.

ND was never coming back to Provo. That ship had long ago sailed.

Holmoe made the smart financial choice. I guess you can argue he could've taken less money to stand on some principle, but the AD accountants will be glad he didn't.