I don't think many of our fans appreciate how tight our budget is compared to other BCS schools. Not only do we have a much smaller fan base to draw funds from (both through tickets and fund raising) compared to the other BCS schools, but we are also at a severe cost disadvantage compared to almost every other school because of WFU's high tuition.
For example, WFU's tuition costs for football alone is over $3.8MM a year (85 Scholarships @ $44K). That is $1.2MM more than UNC (85 @ $30K), and that assumes they all are paying out of state tuition. And UNC is one of the more expensive schools in the ACC, schools like Clemson and NC-State are even less. Once you factor in that we also have to pay for B-Ball, Baseball, Soccer, etc... we are at a multi-million dollar short fall compared to almost every other BCS school that needs to be made up just to stay even with other schools. That really puts a strain on any coaching/facility upgrades we might want to undertake. Yes, other private schools such Duke, Vandy, USC, Northwestern, and Stanford have this same problem, but they also have larger enrollments and have endowments 3.5x or more the size of ours, to help ease the pressure.
Because of this, Wellman might not be low-balling anyone. We just might not have much more than $1.0-1.3MM to spend on a new guy (and honestly I have no idea how we ever afforded Grobe's $2MM a year. My only guess is a couple alums stepped forward to cover the difference).
