The University's Athletic Department is known for running an upstanding program. It's no wonder then that The Ann Arbor News's four-part series this week on academics and athletes at the University hit a raw nerve. While the reports raise immediate questions about whether the University pushes its student athletes into easier classes and specific majors, underscoring the articles is a more important point - college athletics have grown into something they were never supposed to be.

On Sunday, the News kicked off a four part series on student-athletes with salacious allegations about independent study courses taught by Prof. John Hagen. In that installment, the News claimed that many athletes are shepherded into Hagen's independent study courses to receive credit and high grades for meager coursework. Hagen and his courses had been reviewed twice by the University's College of Literature, Science and the Arts without concern.

The next three parts of the series went on to detail or imply many other problems. These included how athletes disproportionately graduate with majors in general studies, previously migrated to the sports management major in the School of Kinesiology until the degree requirements were tightened and how advisors questionably help push students into programs and classes that are more beneficial for students' athletic eligibility than their academic futures.

For some people, these stories were damning accounts that uncovered secret abuses at the University. For others, these were unsubstantiated allegations that used questionable reporting tactics like printing students' GPAs to make obvious points, or just imply them. Both sides have good arguments, and thankfully this series has brought this topic back into discussions.

Setting aside whether these allegations are true, they are nothing new in college sports. Disparate treatment of student athletes is all too common at large Division I universities. Big-time college sports have turned into a big business. There are strong economic pressures for colleges to recruit and retain key players for revenue sports - just take a look at the Terrelle Pryor fiasco. Many schools are willing to overlook academic deficiencies (or have to overlook them) in the pursuit of securing commitments from top athletes.

Frequently, this results in two sets of academic rules: one for athletes and one for non-athletes. And this benefits no one. For non-athletes, this double standard undermines the credibility of the University's academic programs. These degrees, no matter how they are obtained, have the same university on them. For athletes, the University is doing these students a disservice when if it sets less-demanding standards. When colleges allow athletes to forgo a meaningful education, athletes often suffer a loss of educational opportunities and graduate with poor career prospects.

Granted, student athletes have time constraints that many other students don't have. It would be unfair to characterize all student athletes as people who squeak by with a degree. Being an athlete and a good student does not need to be mutually exclusive - and most students have proved that point.

Yet, colleges are more than brand names. The University is a school and its primary mission should be to educate. That mission is undermined if students are allowed - or even worse, encouraged - to put sports before schoolwork. That's the real culprit here, and the University has an obligation to be doing more to make sure that academics come first.

Athletics should complement education, not substitute for it. A degree from the University should be more than a rubberstamped document: it should signify educational achievement.