Recently hired University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban will earn $4 million for every year he spends on the field.
But for those spending time in the classroom, the checks aren't as big.
The average full-time professor at NCAA Division 1-A schools in the United States earns $101,774 per year, according to the American Association of University Professors. At Penn, not an NCAA Division 1-A School, the highest paid professor - whose name the University would not release because of its privacy policy - earns $156,500 per year.
And this discrepancy is raising eyebrows among higher-education officials.
A report released last month by the American Association of University Professors, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that focuses on improving the quality of life for professors, identifies the growing gap between University professors' and coaches' salaries.
"We were struck by the magnitude of the difference," said John Curtis, AAUP director of research and public policy. "It sends a signal that coaches are more important than professors," he said.
He added that it "would appear to indicate that their sports activities are driving some of the academic programs of the university, rather than the other way around."
Officials have pointed to fierce competition and revenue from athletics as a possible impetus for higher salaries.
"When Penn State gets 100,000 people for a football game, there's a lot of money generated, and it's in their best interests to field a competitive team," said Mike Mahoney, director of Athletic Communications at Penn.
"You want to get the best coach you can get," he said, explaining that many schools think that, if they get the best, most highly coveted coaches, then their team will win.
Still, only 40 percent of NCAA Division I schools - the ones competing for the most expensive coaches - have profitable athletic programs, Curtis said.
Research also "indicates that there is little correspondence between winning athletic programs and the amount of salaries that are paid to coaches, but it seems to be a self-perpetuating cycle," he added.
At Penn, officials say coaches aren't actually paid that much more than full-time professors, and that may be a function of being in the Ivy League.
"Coaching salaries are often less of an issue at Penn, and the Ivy League in general, because our recruiting philosophy [of no athletic scholarships is] different from those of many of the schools with higher coaching salaries," Provost's Office spokesman Leo Charney said.
At other schools, like the University of Alabama, where coaches like Saban are earning relatively astronomic salaries, it seems there may be an issue.
"We . need more discussion on how athletics fits into the broader instructional mission of the University," Curtis said. Administrators need to allow "groups of faculty members to be involved in determining the appropriate level of spending on athletic programs."
