Why are college coaches paid so much?

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

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?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:01.0	Student loans are getting serious now.
0:15.0	If you don't pay, the government will soon start to do things like bring in debt collectors
0:19.3	and garnish wages.
0:21.3	So it's worth looking at exactly what tuition and fees are paying for.
0:25.8	You've got building maintenance, administration, professors' salaries.
0:29.4	Yeah, and what about the highest paid college employee?
0:33.6	That's often the football coach.
0:35.4	Yeah, take the University of Alabama. Its football coach is getting paid close to $11 million.
0:41.3	University of Georgia, its football coach was paid over $13 million last year.
0:46.3	Meanwhile, the college's president was getting paid about $1 million.
0:51.3	This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Darien Woods. And I'm Adrian Ma. This is the indicator from planet money.
0:54.8	I'm Daryan Woods.
0:56.0	And I'm Adrian Ma.
0:57.3	Today on the show, why our college football coaches paid so much?
1:01.4	Does it really make economic sense?
1:03.7	We crunch the numbers after the break.
1:12.7	Really? Come on, let's go.
1:19.4	Hear that? That's the sound of my customers leaving.
1:22.8	When your broadband doesn't work, neither does your business.
1:26.0	Will Sky Business keep me up and running? No matter what.
1:30.6	With 4G backup and our stay connected guarantee, better believe it.
	...

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