Some colleges used to offer academic credit for participating in intercollegiate athletics, but these courses have fallen out of favor.

Widespread prejudice and legitimate resentment against athletics remains in academia, and no wonder. The $6.9 million annual salary of Nick Saban, the head football coach at the University of Alabama, is equal to the combined average salary for nearly 100 assistant professors at the school, according to the most recent data available. And beyond such economic disparities, class distinctions of 19th-century England still shape thinking about sport: Classical music is valued by high society, while sport is for the masses.

Still, the arguments are compelling for creating athletics majors on campus.

Universities routinely give degrees in the performing arts, such as music, dance and theater, as Professor Shughart pointed out. In these programs performances are often given to audiences paying for the privilege of seeing exceptional talent on display.

Beyond our cultural biases, what really is the difference between a Shakespeare play, an orchestra concert and a basketball game? Each performance requires some high-level combination of physical ability and mental acuity, developed through years of training and study, and for which only a select few reach elite levels.

Another proponent of an athletics major is John V. Lombardi, a former president of the University of Florida and the Louisiana State University System. In an article two years ago in Inside Higher Ed, he argued that degrees in athletics would involve far more than just playing games.

His case for athletics degrees is based on a “structured curriculum” off the field, in areas such as “sports history, sports law, sports finance.” Students would also have to meet general education requirements. Here at the University of Colorado, Boulder, for instance, we have begun an academic program in sports governance housed within the athletic department, serving the entire student body.

These degree programs in athletics would require close oversight and accountability, of course, to ensure rigor and prevent academic fraud, as in the case of the University of North Carolina, where for years scholarship athletes received A’s and B’s in nonexistent classes that helped them maintain athletic eligibility.