Sports in America
Sports in the United States are an important part of American culture; however, the sporting culture is different from that of other nations, as Americans prefer a unique set of sports. For example, soccer, the most popular sport in the world, is not as popular in the U.S. compared to the four most popular team sports — namely baseball, American football, basketball, and ice hockey. The major leagues of each of these sports enjoy massive media exposure and are considered the preeminent competitions in their respective sports in the world. The preeminence of the major leagues is partially attributed to their strong financial power and huge domestic market. In addition to the difference of popular sports, sports are also organized differently in the United States. There is no system of promotion and relegation like sports in Europe and major sports leagues operate as associations of franchises. Moreover, all major sports leagues use the same type of schedule with a playoff tournament after the regular season ends. Also, unlike many other countries, schools and colleges and universities sports competitions play an important role in the American sporting culture. Competition between national teams is far less important than in the sporting culture of the rest of the world.
The extent in America to which sports are associated with secondary and tertiary education is unique among nations. Intercollegiate athletic programs from the country’s most prominent colleges and universities has become a multi-billion dollar enterprise. In basketball and football, high school and particularly college sports are followed with a fervor equaling or exceeding that felt for professional sports; college football games can draw six-digit crowds, many prominent high school football teams have stadiums that seat tens of thousands of spectators, and the college basketball championship tournament played in March, known as March Madness, draws enormous attention. Sports are a significant source of revenue for schools competing in Division I (D-I), the highest level of collegiate athletics. This has created controversy as collegiate athletes are considered amateurs and thus may not receive a salary, although many athletes are granted scholarships to attend a school and compete in a sport. ESPN writer Robert Lipsyte contends that "a lot of athletes are simply getting cheated out of the chance for an education" since they are not able to truly focus on their studies. There is a call for reform of college athletics, particularly in regard to practices in recruiting for football and basketball teams. Further, among the most popular sports such as basketball and football, coaching success is revered to the point that D-I schools may extend multi-million dollar contracts to the most proven coaches; several coaches of D-I football programs and a few D-I basketball coaches are claimed as the highest-paid public employees in their respective states.
[Source: Wikipedia]