the great state of Maine seems to be the only one with its priorities in order

Oh and here's Boilermaker Rick.

I'd be pissed if I was a college president (or custodial engineer for that matter) in connecticut

Wow. You are late to this party.

This is exactly how it should be. Blame professional sports. They pay more, so colleges have to pay more to compete and generate money. It's the best investment these schools can make. Well, I guess they could pay terribly, play in front of empty stadiums, see a massive reduction in donations both to the athletic and academic programs, cut non-revenue generating(see girls sports) sports. Then, people who don't even like college sports could celebrate that in Minnesota the highest paid government employee is some guy who runs a medical school or is a Governor!

Oh, and by the way, most people want college athletes to get a little extra above the scholarship.

It's interesting how people think that college athletes should be paid based on the overinflated market rates they think they would get get mad when college football and basketball coaches are paid actual market rates because they actually have the ability to get work in the NFL or NBA and need to be compensated based on that demand.

Or, colleges could, like, teach people things.

You could have made this chart at any time in the last century and it would have looked substantially identical.

Pennsylvania is wrong, Penn State is not a "state school." It is a private "state affiliated" school. Even if it was, the amount paid to the coach would not be coming out of state funds, private boosters foot the bill for how much he gets paid. I'm sure that's a similar tactic at other schools as well.