For obvious reasons, Manhattan, Kansas is referred to as "The Little Apple." From 1988 to 2005, arguably one of the best college coaches in the history of the game, Bill Snyder, brought national prominence to a horrible program, the Kansas State Wildcats. Why would Snyder, who once could have almost picked to coach anywhere, choose to coach in Manhattan, KS? I think a good portion of this can be explained by compensating differences - a term used by labor economists for a positive job characteristic that compensates a worker for a low salary. Jason Whitlock sheds some light.
The national media might be reluctant to cast Snyder in his proper light. Snyder never cooperated with the media. He never let anyone in the media get too close. We had to enjoy his brilliance from afar.
Snyder had the reputation as a control freak and I imagine he probably got more distaste from media-member-prying than the average coach. Imagine how his life (from his perspective) would have been if he had coached in, say, The Ohio State University or at Texas, where there is much more media scrutiny of the football program. I don't think its a stretch to say that Snyder willingly gave up some of the spotlight (and a higher salary) to avoid some of that media scrutiny.