The media tends to portray college athletes in ways that appear to undermine their academic ability.  Also, the media really just covers the big-time sports, like football and basketball, at big-time schools.  The emphasis and glorification of sports in big-time colleges is not the same at smaller colleges.  Focusing on the social prominence of sports at big-time schools creates an inaccurate view of all intercollegiate athletics.

Athletes in big-time programs are seen as an asset to the school since they make money and publicity for the institution.  With these big programs, much emphasis isn’t put on academic performance, as long as they maintain a high enough GPA to keep eligibility to play.  Interestingly enough, graduation rates are lowest among athletes in the high-revenue producing sports, football and basketball.  This fact shows that the big-time teams put a lot more emphasis on sports than academics.

The collective graduation rates of some big-time teams such as Ohio State football are below 50%.  Nothing has been done to penalize teams who have seemingly put academics on the back burner, until now.  The NCAA has created a set of standards that will require collegiate teams to meet certain graduation rate requirements, etc. or else be faced with not being able to participate in competition.  According to NCAA President Myles Brand, “it is time to eliminate the notion that it is acceptable to matriculate prospective student-athletes without proper regard for their potential for educational success” (Coakley, 502).