If you are playing for a scholarship the emphasis is on sports, if it's not you lose the scholarship. It doesn't have to be direct emphasis. I talked to the co

If you are playing for a scholarship the emphasis is on sports, if it's not you lose the scholarship. It doesn't have to be direct emphasis. I talked to the coaches for a few D1 schools, even ones who weren't known to be good at sports and heavy on academics like Northwestern (at the time) had a little talk with prospective players about the balance between the two. They recommended you do not attempt any difficult majors while playing football as the conflict between the two would be too difficult to manage. That is directly putting sports above academics. And that was for practice squad kids. Yes there may be schools that are better at it, but scholarships change the equation. I've talked to many many people who played college sports at all levels, this may not be statistical but this was well over 100 people.