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?

Related episodes:
Why the Olympics cost so much (Apple / Spotify)
Want to get ahead in youth sports? Try staying back a year (Apple / Spotify)

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy