Nick Saban, the head football coach for The University of Alabama, will make make more than $11 Million in 2017. This makes him probably the highest paid public official is not a legislator or head of state, without taking into consideration the bribes / extra income of the heads of states.

Saban's pay comes in two parts: A salary, which is around $300,000 and a 'talent fee' which brings in the million. This is all for tax purposes.

Incidentally, NCAA student-athletes who have helped Saban win four titles in don’t earn anything else than their scholarships. Schools keep these athletes in crappy, non demanding courses, so they keep playing, as long as they can. When they get out in real world, they are bruised goods - the injuries from a tough sport, and not having learned anything of value for the real job world. John Oliver did a segment on the plight of NCAA athletes. See it here.

If the players get injured, the risk losing the scholarship altogether. And since they're not 'employees', they're not entitled to any kind of disability insurance.

The whole football system seems to be built on 'slave labor', an offline version of how Facebook and Google are making money on content provided by us.

The only excuse given by college authorities is that the money made by football helps run 'non glamorous' sports programs in the state not known to be among America's richest states. At least the coach is making some!

Like elsewhere in world, Saban seems to be a public official who excels mostly in showing how useful he is to society, than other things.