U.S.C. (Seattle Campus)

Seattle boasts that it's the site of one of the nation's great public research universities. The University of Washington supplies engineers and scientists for Boeing, and computing engineers and mathematicians for Microsoft. Its schools of law and medicine are among the best in the country. The UW educates many of the best and brightest of Washington's young people.

Too bad everyone thinks it just costs too damn much in taxes.

But forget about education. It's boring. UW football is what's creating excitement and big headlines in Seattle. Last month, the Huskies hired Steve Sarkisian away from USC to be their new head coach. And now they have hired Nick Holt, USC's defensive coordinator, to perform the same role at the UW. Recently they hired Jim Michelczik away from Cal to serve as offensive coordinator.

Thus the reign of Tyrone Willingham and his assistants -- and a 0-12 season -- come to an end.

What possessed Sarkisian to come to Seattle, after coaching the Trojan offense to a Rose Bowl victory? Well, perhaps the $1.85 million annual salary he was offered? Nick Holt was lured north with an offer of $2.1 million for a three-year contract. Jim Michelczik will get $350,000 per year. And Sarkisian still has five more major staff positions to fill, and a substantial budget with which to do it.

Meanwhile, back in academia, the UW is becoming increasingly unable to compete with its peer universities in hiring and keeping highly qualified faculty. The university historically has relied on Seattle's amenities and the Northwest's outdoorsy recreational opportunities to serve as part of its professors' compensation. That approach goes only so far. And it's not going much further.

In 2002 -- the last year for which I could find numbers -- a full professor of physics at the UW received an average salary of $84,181. A tenured associate professor averaged $71,257. An aeronautical engineering full professor -- $96,480. Electrical engineering full professor -- $104,065. Law school full professor -- $107,863. Full professors are professors who have reached the top of the academic mountain, and are generally at least in their 50's. These figures are for 2002, but faculty salaries have not even kept pace with the cost of living since then. And Seattle has one of the highest costs of living in the country.

That vast silence you hear throughout the State of Washington is the noise being made by people who give a damn that their premier university is paying its football coach 19 times the salary of a full professor of aeronautical engineering -- here in the city that is Boeing's home town.

As the UW basketball coach commented, when asked by the Seattle P-I about this disparity in salaries:

"I don't get into all that," he said. "I'm a Husky fan. I want to see us win. If that's what it took to get him -- suh-weet.

"Let's go get 'em."

In other words, if Seattle kids want top level educations in the future, let 'em go to Harvard. We got more important stuff to worry about around these parts. Like winning BCS championships.

Makes me glad that I attended a school with different priorities -- one that sought to compete athletically, but not at any cost.