College athletics is a different kind of business. The largest revenue stream is from donors, followed by ticket sales and allocations from conferences and the NCAA. It is true that our fans have been on the "cheaper" side, compared to fans at other P5 conference schools. It's kind of hard to keep up with the college athletics arms race as an athletic director if you can't afford it. Cael left because he thought his coaching ability was valued more than what we could afford to pay. Fred toyed with taking the Minnesota job briefly because of the same reason. You have to keep your coaches happy financially. I do think things are starting to change here, especially how we are now able to do things like hire Dresser away from VT, fund fun features like our fancy bridge in whole, and pay off unsuccessful coach's contracts (rumor).