College Athletics shouldn't be everything.

Seth Reeves

Many people may not know how good a certain college's academics are, but mostly everyone will know how good that college is in athletics. These days, a college's athletic program can be very important. It can bring in a lot of revenue in for the school, and even be a good way to advertise itself to the world if they have a successful sports team. Also, many people will go to a college or university just to because the school is known for its football or basketball team. Academics could come second to going to a school with a superior athletic program. But why do colleges and universities across America spend so much money trying to make their athletic programs so successful? Yes, having a very successful athletic program can do a lot of good for a college, but based on The Chronicles of Higher Education website, many smaller schools are losing money trying to give their school a top-tier athletic program.

This is a perfect example of having the right intentions, but doing the wrong thing. Many of these smaller schools that have lost loads of money trying to build a thriving athletic program, all had good intentions. They wanted to make their school "better." One way to make a school "better" is to not only have good academics, but also excellent athletics because sometimes a college is not only judged by its academics. But, these smaller schools need to be realistic. Not every school can be like Ohio State, Florida, or USC. By putting all of their money into trying to replicate those schools' programs is very unwise, but that is what many schools have done. They need to realize that even though an admirable program can do a lot for a school, it is not worth losing money over and hurting the more important things like academics, research, etc. Building a successful program should be a slow process. It won't happen in a year. Every school across America needs to realize why they really exist. It is not to win football games, or win a college world series, but to educate the young people of today.