You are correct. I checked Florida and as of Dec of 2013 Jimbo was making 4 million and the Florida BB coach was making 3.7, before that jimbo made 2.7 . So the information was accurate up until 5 months ago. It still shows you what parts of the country value certain sports and other parts that pay non sports related employees more. Clearly the NE part of the country is different than the rest of the country, that was what I noticed about the map.
Well, the rest of the country loves college football more than New England for a couple of reasons. First, even though the first football teams of any note were in the northeast (Yale, Princeton, Harvard), those schools were all private, and all refused to sublimate academics to football. Also, the wealth of different private schools in the north meant there weren't as many alumni from schools like UConn and UMass in administrations, and that made the support--both in fans and in money--more diffuse.
But there was rabid interest in the northeast in the older days, and the love New Englanders and New Yorkers have for the Pats/Giants/Jets rivals anything you see anywhere. So I think it's just a matter of tapping into it. You bring in Michigan/Ohio State/Penn State/Nebraska/Michigan State/Wisconsin...you better believe there will be people at the rent. Replace those with other great football schools (Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, etc.) and you'll see the same.
They just need good competition, on a consistent basis, and they will tap into a
huge fanbase. Maybe not as large or as rabid as some of those schools listed above, but better than many seem to suspect--especially since a number of people in the state have already been converted to UConn fans--even if they aren't alum--because of basketball. It's an easy transition. The recent (relative) decline of Notre Dame and Penn State only helps them as well.