Isn't College About Learning?

Now, I'm not 100% sure, but I think the point of college is to get the best education possible.  However, what about the college athlete.  These kids come in, their sights set on making it in their respective sports.  Many times these kids are highly recruited, and picking a college to play for is like going into the draft.  With the amount of pressure these schools are put under to win, it is no surprise that they expect these athletes to perform at the highest of levels.

So, no one can expect them to balance school work and training for an upcoming season, game or tournament.  These kids used to go to school, and in addition they played a sport, sometimes even two.  But today, the importance placed on winning has become too much that these kids have to concentrate mainly on sports.  So they get tutors, or teachers to help them, they learn on the road, they get extra attention.  But, with all the time they spend in the gym, or in practice, it can be hard to find time to study or look over those notes.

So maybe a student athlete starts failing, and the coach needs them in the upcoming game, so they talk to some people.  Next thing you know, that kid is playing in the game, and his grades are not really a problem, in fact, no one really pays attention to their grades.  Now, what happens if a student who does not play a sport starts failing, what happens.

Do they:

A) Get help from an appointed tutor

B) Have to take things into their own hands

The answer is B, they're on their own.  In fact, the school will tell them, you pick up the grades or you are out.  Hold on a minute, isn't the point of college to better a person's education?  So that means those college athletes who aren't doing well should be out of school too.

Oh wait, the school needs their athletic teams to do well, help bring in money and notoriety, so it's no wonder they don't have the same problems as a normal student if they start failing.  Now, let's say for the sake of the story, that an athlete plays two years, gets drafted, and goes to the pro's.  He plays for awhile, then gets hurt.  That injury never fully heals, and now that athlete is with out a job.  Good thing he has that college degree...wait, no he doesn't.