Varsity sports have become one of the major, if not the major, cultural references people keep in relate to universities. It has evolved into a major business, racking billions of dollars in revenue every year and exerting huge influence over the schools and communities that host major college sport teams, especially football and basketball.
Schooled presents and discuss the often ignored downsides of the oversize importance of college sports. It brings to the viewer some candid interviews and exposes on actions taken by NCAA and athletic departments of some famous universities.
It devotes a good part of screen time discussing the contradictions and hypocrisy of a system, centered around the "student-athlete" concept that fails such student-athletes in many possible ways: by not giving them a meaningful education in case they don't go pro (as most won't), by leaving students without basic support they need, by merciless cutting athletes out when they get injured and especially by making the student-athletes the only part of the system that doesn't get paid for the millions they games they play earn for everybody else (coaching staff, universities, broadcasters, sports' companies).
'Schooled' explores well the contradictions of the so-called amateurism, presenting a less than flattering story on the historical origins of the idea of a pure system where athletes play for the love of the game only.