To be fair, the numbers are not directly comparable. The football coach salaries are only for division I teams, which most schools don't have; the mean and median football coach salaries over all schools is probably much lower, and the academic salaries at schools with division I teams may well be higher than average.<p>In essence, this is comparing the average salary of the top 150 best-paid football coaches to the average for all academics. It would be interesting to see what the average of the top 150 academic salaries is.
Yep, that's the way it is.<p>Universities are only incidentally about knowledge and learning.<p>Please do not confuse the grant money draw that is research with either teaching or learning.
Clearly they are part of it but money is the main driver.<p>Money is priority #1, that's why sports are so important.<p>Money is important to students as well, the bulk of the income their degree will generate depends on the reputation of the school, <i>not</i> on how much they actually know.<p>And that's when they are first entering the job market.
After that first job, the only way college matters is through the relationships you built there.
Obviously relationships you build at work matter more and more over time.<p>And here again sports is important in creating that image of tribal success that draws the people that you want to connect with, to make it far in life after college.<p>That's the way life and college work.<p>If you don't like this harsh and cynical money based game, go to a school that doesn't have a sports program and be a scholar.
And if you do that, don't ever think about money.<p>If you do find yourself thinking about money, especially more then is needed to simply survive, then get an MBA... preferably from a school with a very successful sports program.
The true injustice is how much money universities make on the backs of athletes who don't earn a red cent. And the coach salaries demonstrate the value of collegiate athletics, adding insult to real injuries.
Sure, this seems unjust, mainly because none of us are professional football coaches (I'm assuming).<p>But I'm not sure what point the comic is trying to make, really. If this imbalance in pay pushed top academics to drop their career and switch to coaching football, I could understand the argument that it's harmful. I highly doubt that's the case.
It's crazy how fanatic people are about sports. I know in Europe there are gangs that kill each other based on what soccer team they support. Is this just because we can't go out and make war on the neigboring village anymore?
For the benefit of non-American people like me, can someone explain what this thing with athletic scholarships in US universities is all about? To me it just seems silly, like a sports team having academic scholarships would be.