ALASKA TRENDS.

College sports are big business. The heftiest public employee salary in forty states goes to a college football coach. In its annual analysis, USA Today found the fifty highest paid state employees nationwide in 2021 were coaches of college football or basketball, all making seven figures. Looking at the top three in each state, more than half of the 150 coach football.

Alaska is unusual, not having any college football programs, so a different public employee drew the state's top paycheck: $371,475 for the executive director of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation (abruptly dismissed last December, which some critics compared to firing a football coach during a winning season-but that's a whole other story). An investment officer with the Permanent Fund was #3, and in between was a state prison psychiatrist at #2, which tracks with other states. In most places where football coaches aren't in the top spot, the biggest public paycheck goes to an MD, either in a public health agency or medical school. Other than Alaska, the only exceptions are Rhode Island, where the state university president is paid the most, and Delaware, where the biggest paycheck goes to... the veterinarian for the Thoroughbred Racing Commission. Sports!

This edition of Alaska Trends springboards off Brad Joyal's "Skating Uphill" about the suspension and...