Is Sports Participation More Important Than Traditional Education?

Sports participation, or physical education, should be a part of the educational process to set the ground work for children to live active lives and stay in somewhat good shape, instead of the current trend of coming home from school and playing video games (See diabetes and heart attacks before they turn 40.) But your question is not separating two enviornments. Sports participation is one thing, and those teachers are usually paid the same as classrom teachers. Coaches, on the other hand, that get paid 35 million like this college b-ball coach just did, are not teachers. They are one step down from the Athletic Director, who is in charge of the LARGEST revenue making machine on campus. Example. U of M football stadium seats 100,000 plus. At minimum of 22 dollars a seat. Times 10 plus games. Always sold out. Big college athletics is just as much as a business as a sport. And if you want to keep it a money maker, you have to put a superior product on the field (or court). Fail to, and the $22 seats start to be empty. So you pay the big bucks for a coach tha can always win and draw kids into the program and keep the seats full. Money talks, nobody walks.

What Jim said is all true. Pity. In real life, the money a school receives should be deemed for education 1st. Not the other way around. There are way to many past "star athletes" digging ditchs now, because of lack of education.