>My preference would be for a world where college athletes were genuinely student-athletes: held to the same academic standards as other students while genuinel

>My preference would be for a world where college athletes were genuinely student-athletes: held to the same academic standards as other students while genuinely acting as amateur athletes. For the most part, that IS the case. Big 5 schools make up only a tiny fraction of student athletes. My experience with student athletes was that they had in general, above average academics compared to the rest of the students in their department, which included my engineering department. Granted, this wasn't at a big 5 school or anything, but I'd predict roughly the same there on average as it reflects personality traits correlated with success: i.e. to be successful in college athletics, it usually takes strong social skills, self-motivation, discipline, and consistency. These things tend to carry over to other endeavors. There's also additional motivation among athletes to maintain a sufficiently high GPA to keep their scholarships/financial aid.