<p>There’s another option that is more radical and which would bring athletics more into the fold of academia: giving course credit for athletic participation on a varsity team during the season you play.</p>
<p>I am not being sarcastic here. Rarely do we talk about the intellectual merits of athletic participation. If college is the place to learn critical thinking skills, is there less critical thinking involved in playing a good soccer game than there is in music or theatre performance that warrants one being considered part of academia and the other not?</p>