Quote:1. They think they have facilites on par withmany p-5 schools
Nobody's preaching that. It's that it's not a hampering issue. It's very good on G5 levels, and only to scale up. Keep winning, more is made. Wasn't a deciding factor.
Quote:2. They think they brought 30-40k fans for the bowl game
It's that we had at least as many as Wisconsin brought. If you were down in Arlington & Dallas -- and At the game -- you wouldn't be arguing that.
Quote:3. They think they have billionare donors who give generously to the AD
We do. They were basically paying his salary -- and flying his kids from the St. Louis area to Kzoo. Read up.
Quote:4. They think WMU can afford to pay 30 million over 10 yaers for a coach.
With billionaire alumni, that was at least a somewhat realistic rumor. And the AD said to the press -- we were going to offer more (as in longer-term contract, thus adding up to more). One of the biggest misconceptions those outside the core WMU fan base (or MAC following all this) is that WMU wasn't able to pay him much more than $800k/year. LOL. Oh, they certainly were able to (see your #3).
Him being a midwesterner, and liking the Kzoo area, with his new wife being from the area -- it was about as good a gig as one could get. But he has bigger aspirations. If he were to have signed on to a long-term deal, he wouldn't been able to be bought out any time real soon... and the Minnesota gig was a good thing to jump on if one wanted to stay in the midwest, as it was taking over a winning team whose previous coaches were ones he was an understudy of.
Ambition > Comfort G5 Power
If he was nearing 55+ years old, things would have unfolded differently. But no, it was no "Here, we'll give you $1.0 million and give a small boost to your OC/DC - please stay," -- it wasn't as meager as that. If that's all they could have done, he probably would have jumped on the Purdue train around the time of the MACC. Why did he not chase anything until after the MACC? He knew what he was getting was P5-level riches + a chance to Establish a G5 power. Not a bad gig at all. He wisely wasn't going to sacrifice a Conf Championship and such when a Good opportunity was already at his doorstep. It was just the drunken gang-bang opened up the doors for him to take over a winning program in the midwest who would let him be him. He jumped on it for ambition, obviously.
If he leads Minnesota to jockeying for 1st place in the East Division of B1G year to year, he'll be hired elsewhere. He could be in a similar spot in 4 years -- where a 10W Minn team is willing to pay him more than one would think with alumni all behind him and money thrown down -- but due to the ability to get better recruits and such at a better locale & bigger name, he jets elsewhere for only a little more.