That is a bit more than 1/9th of what the head football coach at UCLA makes, who has two assistants (offensive and defensive coordinators) who each earned a bit more than Tao. Additionally, UCLA still paid more than $3M in 2021 to another head football coach whom they had fired in 2017. The university seems to have fairly clearly defined priorities.
UCLA football is a profit center. It costs 32MM to operate but brings in 37MM in revenue. I suppose Tao might bring in some government grants (maybe?) but I doubt its anywhere near the same ballpark.
But even IF this were a profitable activity, should a university really be in the business of running an enterprise that literally causes irreversible brain damage (Story about USC, but undoubtedly applies to all football programs: https://www.si.com/college/2020/10/07/usc-and-its-dying-line...)?
You’re confusing the football program for the athletic program as a whole. If you scroll down in the link I posted you’ll see every other athletic program at UCLA is indeed running at a significant loss. Football is the only profitable one.
With respect to the brain damage, he spent much longer in the professional setting than college, it’s more likely the damage came from there. I don’t think colleges should be in the business of restricting what students should be allowed to explore based on the possibility they might choose a career where brain damage may occur. And if they did, Engineering should be the first to go. Just think of all the brain damage resulting from professionals engineers of the military industrial complex!
Note that the article is not just about Junior Seau. Of the 12 linebackers who played in the USC team he was in, 5 died before age 50, and he was the only one of them with a significant NFL career (another one played a single season, the other 3 never played professional football).
That is a bit more than 1/9th of what the head football coach at UCLA makes, who has two assistants (offensive and defensive coordinators) who each earned a bit more than Tao. Additionally, UCLA still paid more than $3M in 2021 to another head football coach whom they had fired in 2017. The university seems to have fairly clearly defined priorities.