Everywhere you look, you can see something involving sports. Whether it is a big commercial deal with a superstar athlete or a huge contract signing that is all over the news. A large portion of our society revolves around sports and often has a hard time keeping them in perspective. Nowadays you hear about problems when parents take youth sports to far and push their kids, coaches, and officials to a ridiculous point. One big problem that can be seen as athletes develop is the emphasis on winning, especially on the college level. It makes you think about the real reason for sports in college.
             A student attends a college or university to get a higher education that will help him or her earn a better living when they graduate. Their athletics become second to their academics. With athletes, this seems to change. Many factors play into it but sometimes it doesn't go this way. Athletes, coaches, and the universities themselves can all be credited for this sometime or another. No matter what level of competition in the NCAA the school is competing in, every once and a while you will hear of a situation where athletics is emphasized more than academics. A prime example of this is when a school accepts potential athletes that do not normally meet the usual academic requirements. The only reason they get accepted is because they could help out the athletic program. This is the case with one of my friends from high school. He was not exactly a model student, but he was a good athlete. Most schools that he applied to did not accept him due to his poor grades and SAT!
             scores. Eventually, he enrolled into a good school that wanted him to play.
             One of the simplest reasons athletics are viewed out of proportion is that the athlete cares about the sport more than their schoolwork. They commit all their time to the sport, and it is like nothing else matters to them. I was once one of these athletes. My first semester ...