It's just the bare minimum.
I'm telling you guys - this is calculated.
Someone sat down in the AD and determined that the rewards (championships, success, conference affiliations, fan support, and everything else that goes into it) were simply not worth the effort, work, risk and drive that it requires.
Again I say, if you want to win big, you're going to have to work, you're going to have to risk, you're going to have to make big decisions, you're going to have to make demands, its going to cost people their jobs, you're going to have to have an uncomfortable work environment from time to time.
It's much easier to just go along, do the bare minimum, get a free trip to Hawaii or the Bahamas every year. It's a nice top of the market paycheck and you get to work with your buddies and pad that state retirement.
The fans have been driven away, so there's no demands there. The players are not FBS level players, most of them are just grateful to have a 'ship, so there's no real demands there either.
It's kind of ingenious too - if you take the fan base we had in 2009 or so, and go 2-10 the next 3 years, people go berserk, the media notices, you get put on those hot seat rankings, etc.
But if you just lose enough every year to drive away a small portion of the fan base every year? Next thing you know you're set for life and no one cares enough to complain (except for the dozen or so ya-hoo's on a message board). Its death by a thousand cuts.
