I had no idea this was the case. NO IDEA.
It is clear that two years ago Bronco looked down the road and realized that the cupboard was bare. Sure, he got $3 million dangled in front of him, but, he'd had them dangled before. Two years ago he saw the pipeline and then the $3 mil and said "yep, time to go."
Granted, some of these guys were in after the end was obvious, but, they still played a significant amount of minutes. Any decent team in D1 would have 2nd and 3rd stringers on scholarship getting those reps so they could build experience, etc.