but they are also not in the extravagant range as you described yourself. Another thing to keep in mind is that the title "professor" is the senior most title reserved for those who have achieved tenure. It usually takes at least 12 years to get there. If you go back and into that site and look at assistant professors and associate professors, these salaries come down.

That said, UT pays quite well in the field. Its also a fairly large research university that is going to attract some of the top level talent in any academic field. So again, you are looking at some of the higher level academics when you quote these statistics. Nevertheless, I agree with you that it isn't like academics aren't paid well enough. I don't think they should be paid any more than they are, I just also don't believe that they should be paid any less. Averaged across the nation, full tenured professor make in the 90's, with assistant professors (entry level) in the 50s.

https://www.higheredjobs.com/salary/salaryDisplay.cfm?SurveyID=24