Maybe you’re saying they were paid under the table? I have no way of knowing, but I tend to doubt it would be a whole lot.

I think it has more to do with schools like the Dakotas and Montana lacking any professional or D-1 schools and having relatively large fan bases and facilities that are more comparable to G5 schools than the rest of FCS. Plus these schools established themselves as proving grounds where players could beat D-1 opponents, transfer up to D1 football if successful or even make the pros.