Fans get lost in the accounting.

What is a budget anyways?

-Revenues coming into a university (TV, Tickets, Donations, Marketing).
-Accounting line items to inflate expenditure (scholarships, band expenses).
-Capital expenditures financed over a period of years.
-Actual costs paid by the university (salaries, equipment, gameday)

All of this is added up to come up with the 30 million budget number you'll see at a G5 school but the real cash that has to be paid out is in the 10-12 million range.

A 20,000 student school with an annual 1,000 dollar a year student fee that brings in 20,000,000 million dollars. Of the 20 mill only about 8 mill is going to athletics. Then only 4 million of actual cash is going to the football program.

If the football program is clearing 5 million in revenue while spending 4 million that school is turning a profit. Football may not be bringing in enough money to pay for the entire athletic department like it does in a P5 but the investment is recouped.

The FCS program is spending 3.25 million while pulling in 1.25 million of revenue. That is why you aren't seeing universities drop down.

With the G5 salaries I don't think you'll see too many of them above the 1-2 million range because it starts to eat into the bottom line. They'll start a coach out at 1 million, raise him to 2 million if he wins the conference championship and once he leaves bring the next guy in at 1 million per year.

What you've seen in recent years out of the MAC/CUSA/SBC is a move to a MWC type salary structure with some latitude to bumping guys up for conference titles or CFP appearances.

P5's have been chasing higher salaries but outside of the very elite programs even they are backing down on cost, willing to hang back in the 2-3 million range because they won't get a 7-8 million dollar revenue bump to justify a 10 million dollar salary. Only the very elite coaches will be getting that kind of money.