Sport or Exploitation?

I was browsing the internet when I noticed a headline that caught my eye. It has to do with college coaches and their salaries. Now this is always interests me especially now that I've finally entered into the college life style and am looking at potential careers. Now here is my question to you. Is it right for a College Football coach to make $6,500,000 for the year when the players themselves can only make $2,000 to survive on because of an NCAA cap that limits their income? Also is it right, that schools pay their sports coaches these type of salaries when they are cutting programs across the board to compensate for nation-wide budget short falls?
I think the answers to these two questions are no and no. To address the first question. I don't think it is right that Oklahoma pays Bob Stoops $6,500,000 to coach or Notre Dame to pay Charlie Weis $4,200,000. So you get my picture here are the top ten highest paid college coaches:

1 Bob Stoops Oklahoma $6,500,000
2 Charlie Weis Notre Dame $4,200,000
3 Pete Carroll USC $4,000,000
4 Les Miles LSU $3,751,000
5 Nick Saban Alabama $3,750,000
6 Jim Tressel Ohio State $3,500,000
7 Urban Meyer Florida $3,400,000
8 Kirk Ferentz Iowa $3,030,000
9 Mack Brown Texas $2,910,000
10 Bobby Petrino Arkansas $2,850,000

Now, I could care less about this issue if it wasn't for the fact that under these circumstances the players are being exploited. I say that the players are being exploited because it is them who are out there busting their backs and giving their all and it is the coach who gets all the kick backs. Most people say that the players don't need anymore money because they all have full-ride scholarships that cover living, transportation, tuition and anything they could really want and they only need $2,000 for goof-off money. But this line of logic is very untrue. Many players do not in fact have full-ride scholarships and the majority actually have scholarships that only pay for tuition, or only pay for living. So these players could definitely use a little financial help that $2,000 won't be able to provide. After all, unless you live in the state that these top football colleges are located, chances are you are going to be paying more than $2,000 in tuition or room and board. I believe the players need to be given a little more compensation for their work. Just think how many more scholarships could be given to these valuable players out of $6,500,000.
Next and most important, is the fact that a lot of schools are facing extreme budget shortfalls due to the failing economy and are having to cut programs in order to compensate for the lack of funds. But one thing you don't see being cut is the athletic budget and sure not the coaches salary! For example, at my college, the marching band was cut along with the math and science budget, and the arts budget. They cut marching band because they claimed it would be too expensive because it cost $200,000. Yet the school turns around and shells out $375,000 to the football coach without hesitation. So lets do the math...$375,000-$200,000 = $175,000...I don't know about you but it seems like a $175,000 paycheck is still a good paycheck to walk away with for the year and we get to keep marching band at the same time. But I digress from my main point. My main argument is that if any programs are to have their budgets cut due to economic struggles it should be the athletic programs and not the academic programs. After all it is
student-athlete not athlete-student.