Here’s the bottom line:
1) Money that other schools would have used to invest in the athletic program - like the money from the ‘92 Fiesta Bowl - was spent refurbishing academic buildings.
2) It wasn’t broadly known how extensive the raiding of revenues was until after Coach P was fired.
It’s great that he was a loyal guy who just plowed through a situation like that without complaining publicly (or taking a job elsewhere). And maybe in the grand scheme of things, it was the right call for the school to do what they did. But if all Coach P did was complain internally and then get back to work - that’s equivalent to signing off on the decisions. There are some positions high enough up in an organization where you either resign or you’ve agreed with the direction - head coach in football at an FBS program is one of those positions.
Anyone saying that Jake and Coach P didn’t have any other options or focusing totally on their loyalty miss the point - sometimes the most loyal thing to do, and the right thing to do if you want the organization to be successful into the future, is the most extreme option. Quit. Jake probably figured this out 7-8 years too late, Coach P didn’t have the chance to. But both found out that “loyalty” doesn’t matter much when the leaders of the organization are steering right into an iceberg, and you’re not doing anything that might cause them to change direction. That’s not true loyalty - that’s the worst possible type of “yes man” there is.