Louisville is going to be the more lucrative job right now; over CU. They are desperate, have way more recent success, and have a bigger pocket book. They historically pay top 25 $ to the head coach.
CU has been in the #40s with MikeMac ($2.9m/year) and were even lower before that.
We would need to pay $4m+ to get a "top 25" coach. Not suggesting that just paying someone lots of money guarantees success; see Scott Frost, Willie Taggert, Lovie Smith, but those are much more the exception than the rule. As far as teams in the top 15 that aren't paying over $3.5m/year, the only one is UCF with Josh Heupel ($1.7m/year).
Here are current salaries for candidates (not just at CU):
Les Miles - unemployed $4.4m/year (from LSU contract) - would rank 18th if still active.
Matt Campbell - IowaSt HC $3.5m/year ($19.3m buyout) - ranks tied for 35th currently.
Charlie Strong - USF HC $2.5m/year starting in 2019
Dave Aranda - LSU DC $2.5m/year (100% guaranteed for 4 years; regardless of Orgeron's status)
Luke Fickell - Cin HC $2.4m/year ($2.8m buyout)
Dino Babers - Syr HC $2.4m/year (no reported buyout; however private school)
Jim Leavitt - Oregon DC $1.7m/year
Greg Schiano - tOSU DC $1.5m/year
Seth Littrell - UNT HC $1.4m/year ($4.4m buyout)
Ken Norton Jr - Seahawks DC ~$1.2m (how fun would that game against a Del Rio led USC be!)
Jimmy Lake - UW DC $1.1m/year ($2.2m buyout only applies to Pac-12 coordinator role; $0 buyout as HC)
Tosh Lupoi - Bama DC $1.1m/year
Neal Brown - Troy HC $800k/year (
contract has a $3m buyout to school)
Alex Grinch - tOSU AHC $800k/year
Chip Long - ND OC - not reported
Lance Anderson - Stan DC - not reported