What I'm saying is that the ND coaching job would have been filled by the beginning of 2010. What other options existed besides these:

1. Sign with Notre Dame and begin immediately
2. Continue with the Bearcats thru the Sugar Bowl and hope that the job was still open afterwards.

You're not going to sign a contract and then manage to keep it a secret for weeks. Unless your players were present at the contract signing there's no way they are going to be the first ones to know with todays news cycles.

Players and fans are going to be pizzed - there's no good way to go about doing this.