Many pro football players make millions, shirk their family responsibilities or worse, are catered to by our society, then traverse the legal system leaving this country to speculate who will be in jail and when they may make it on the field of your favorite team.

Many Division I football players fight over headlines, their share of the marketing pie and how many fans will wear their number on ESPN Gameday, while expecting more money than a full scholarship in compensation. Their coaches, meanwhile, have their agents negotiate multi-million dollar contracts and complain that the media is not fair to them.

While these descriptions are far from the norm and not true for most of the athletes in Division I or the pro ranks, it rings true in too many instances. More importantly, it is a tremendous departure from the fabric of Division II football programs. Each Division II student athlete has the same dream as his Division I counterpart of playing in Denver, Dallas or New Orleans, but that is where the similarities come to a screeching halt.

There are no full scholarships, no line of press interviews, and no ESPN pregame shows. These student athletes have to juggle their academic efforts, long practices, eight-hour bus rides with side jobs and student loans to survive, knowing that none will be hounded by agents or their million dollar contracts upon graduation. Their future depends much more on passing their psychology course than on passing a game-winning touchdown, a very good thing. They play more for the love of competition, the game itself and their school more than any potential NFL contract.

Their coaches have the same competitive pride, watch the scoreboard with the same stress and many times more knowledge, and are paid normal salaries comparable to our colleagues on campus. Yet both student athlete and coach at the Division II level are there because they love to compete, they care about each other, and learn through their college years the importance of a degree and life’s lessons of athletic competition at a high level.

Having been involved in a number of BCS championships, I have seen the sometimes misguided magical ride of the high profile college football experience of a gifted athlete. Spellbound by the professional sports journey, it is not always glitz and glitter.

Certainly, for every millionaire that walks across the NFL draft stage, there are thousands of great untold stories that make an impact on our society after leaving the football field, just as there are in the business school, the education department or nursing among others. Yet the life lessons learned in Jerry World or in Tiger Stadium pale in comparison to the classrooms and practice fields of Division II athletics. The Division II athletic community competes and coaches in spite of the financial constraints, long bus rides, too many pizzas, and the aches and pains of long practices. No one will ever question that they truly love to play and coach, understanding at some point that a student athlete’s future is linked more to a degree than to a headline on the sports page.

When you see a student athlete on campus, understand that they don’t all have a 4.0 GPA, though some do, and may not have had the ideal journey through college. Rest assured they will learn the real reason for being in a university academic setting and will be thankful for the opportunity to compete for meaningful accomplishments on and off the field.

This supportive campus, like many others in Division II, provides our student athletes a great opportunity—complete with professors, staff, administration and fellow students that together keep it all in proper perspective and provide the chance for a degree and a meaningful lifelong career. This happens while they fulfill the most meaningful part of that boyhood dream of playing college athletics.

Isn’t that how it’s supposed to work?

Charlie Carr is the athletics director for Midwestern State University