In the early days of his first season in the N.F.L. as the Tennessee Titans’ offensive coordinator, Norm Chow was in a meeting in which, he recalled, coaches and players were bantering with a rookie, chiding him to pay closer attention. When Chow joined in, the rookie, a recent high draft pick, responded that he had a direct line to the owner.

A veteran player approached Chow after the meeting and told him, “Don’t forget it.”

That was professional football, where players can outrank coaches, and ultimately both answer to ownership. Now Chow is in college football, as the head coach at the University of Hawaii, and he knows that life “absolutely does not” work that way. In college, the head coach frequently has more power than the star quarterback, the athletic director, the university president, even the governor.

Chow, like many coaches in high-level college programs, is the state’s highest-paid state employee.

The difference was illustrated vividly last week when Jim Harbaugh, one of the most successful coaches in the N.F.L. in recent years, opted to leave in favor of the University of Michigan, his alma mater. Harbaugh’s base salary — $5 million annually for seven years with 10 percent increases after three and five years — eventually will amount to more than he was earning with the San Francisco 49ers.

Harbaugh was 44-19-1 in four regular seasons with the 49ers, and he led them to a Super Bowl. But he and team ownership mutually decided to part ways.