Why are college coaches paid so much?

If you had to guess, would you say the president of a university usually makes more money than the football coach? Well, you may be wrong. A college's football coach is often their highest paid employee. The University of Alabama pays its football coach on average close to $11 million. Today on the show, why are college football coaches paid so much? Do their salaries really make economic sense? <br /><br /><strong>Related episodes:<br /></strong>Why the Olympics cost so much (<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-indicator-from-planet-money/id1320118593?i=1000664076143" target="_blank">Apple</a> / <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/4gZk7dH0y0aPy3Dewjh3Mc?si=3a3ed0ec3b9c4c44" target="_blank">Spotify</a>)<br />Want to get ahead in youth sports? Try staying back a year (<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-indicator-from-planet-money/id1320118593?i=1000668191981" target="_blank">Apple</a> / <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/0ShVp09qVMvv8McfmIFnQ5?si=36d1b7efdb9841ae" target="_blank">Spotify</a>)<br /><br /><em>For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at </em><a href="http://plus.npr.org/" target="_blank"><em>plus.npr.org</em></a><em>.<br /><br />Fact-checking by </em><a href="https://www.npr.org/people/g-s1-26724/sierra-juarez" target="_blank"><em>Sierra Juarez</em></a><em>. Music by </em><a href="https://dropelectric.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank"><em>Drop Electric</em></a><em>. Find us: </em><a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@planetmoney" target="_blank"><em>TikTok</em></a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/planetmoney/" target="_blank"><em>Instagram</em></a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/planetmoney" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/newsletter/money" target="_blank"><em>Newsletter</em></a><em>. </em><br /><br />See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy">NPR Privacy Policy</a>