Just a few months before he bolted to Kansas, Self had signed a new five year contract with Illinois which included at least a moderate raise. That's probably at least one of the reasons Gunther didn't believe it was proper to offer him even more money.
This is true. Around Christmas time I believe? And I believe it bumped Self from something like $800k to $1.1M. The rumors of Self leaving (not necessarily for Kansas) had been rampant for some time...and thus the bump.
However, if RG would of had the vision to bump Self to 2.0M-2.5 M at that time instead of waiting until Kansas "officially" came calling it would never have been an issue.
Many of the elites were paying $2M-$3M at the time. Kansas just was arrogant and did not feel they needed to join the "arms race" at the time and would not have pursued a coach over $2M. Of course, a few years later they changed their tune and have been that way ever since. But not at that time.
At a minimum, all we needed Self for was 1-2 more years to finish establishing the elite recruiting and we would have been set. But I feel he would still be here and we would be in a dynasty of success.