On Monday, April 4, Villanova basketball player Kris Jenkins hit an amazing buzzer-beater shot to lift Villanova over UNC 77-74 and ultimately win March Madness -- the NCAA Championship title. Jenkins was dogpiled. Fans (all 74,340 of them) went crazy. Confetti rained from the ceiling. It was absolute madness.

Amidst all of the madness and celebration, a thought occurred to me. Did these kids go to school? How did they keep up?

First of all, March Madness is an elimination tournament, so only a few players at a few schools see the full effect. The first couple of rounds are long weekends, but it gets spread out from there. However, what about people other than the actual basketball team? The cheerleaders? The pep band? How do they all miss school, too?

For these athletes and students, especially at a school like Villanova, making it to the NCAA finals is an extraordinary feat and is one of those "once-in-a-lifetime opportunities." If I was a band member or cheerleader, I would want to be right alongside the basketball team, soaking up the limelight and supporting in any way that I could.

Once all is said and done, I'm sure the team is able to catch up on work -- through the help of classmates, professors or tutors -- that they fell behind on. Students at these big-time schools are extremely lucky to have these types of services available to them.

However, there's no denying that the relationship between college academics and athletics is certainly a strained one.

For example, In 2014, reading specialist Mary Willingham at UNC (ironic, huh?) made the stunning accusation that 60 percent of UNC's football and basketball players read at or below an eighth grade level, yet were still eligible to play college sports because they were placed in no-show classes that required a paper at the end of the term. (See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/clark-power/athletics-vs-academics_b_4592926.html)

It's clear that sometimes, especially with student-athletes, colleges can get so caught up in the "big business" and athletics part of the college that they forget what the purpose of college really is. As a college attendee, I know that we are there to learn, gain knowledge, and hopefully be thrown out into the real world at the end with a sliver of an idea of what to do with our lives. If someone is athletically gifted, then great! Sports encourage bonding with others, self improvement, and can help make school more enjoyable. Let 'em play!

After Villanova's stunning win on Monday evening, the university canceled classes. Obviously, people were excited. They chose to cancel class to celebrate the basketball team's first NCAA championship title since 1985. For Nova, the win had been a long time coming.

Unfortunately, the win turned rowdy back in Pennsylvania where students burned things, shouted, and just generally acted like stupid college kids. In total, six people were arrested and 25 were injured. In my opinion, the decision for Villanova to cancel school Tuesday was an unwise one. Many people were out partying Monday night, and the madness was probably going to continue throughout the next day. On Tuesday, Villanova was set to throw a parade for the team back on campus.

Like I said, I get that Nova's win was a "once-in-a-lifetime" event, but why cancel classes? I'm sure if there was a parade scheduled, many students probably wouldn't even go to class -- but maybe schedule the parade for a different time. Make it at night, when there's no classes -- or even on the weekend. To me, the principle here is skewed. Villanova is teaching its students, and most importantly, its players, that sports come before school. As the old saying goes, "You're a student first, and an athlete second."

Let the basketball boys celebrate -- they deserve it! -- but hold them accountable and responsible for also continuing their education. This scenario is like all employers across the country cancelling work because it's the day after the Super Bowl. It sounds kind of silly, doesn't it? "Oh, sorry Boss, could you cancel work today because I'm still celebrating Peyton Manning's Super Bowl win?"

Excuse me? Why should the school, and in my aforementioned example, a company, stop and drop everything because of a sporting event? If the players can't attend class or students choose to miss class because of a parade they want to attend, that's perfectly okay! Heck, I once skipped my Ancient Greek Literature class (boy, was that a snoozer) to go to the 2014 Giants World Series Parade. However, Nova shouldn't be choosing for its students and setting the example that school is less important. As a widely respected university, they have this duty to set a good educational example.

I attend a school in the Bay Area, quite close to the home of San Francisco Giants -- yet classes weren't cancelled when we won the World Series. Everyone continued about their normal business. I was able to make that decision to miss class myself, not have the school decide for me.

A college's first responsibility is to educate its students, not decide that athletics have a higher influence than academics. I understand that missing one day of class probably won't matter much in the long run, and yes, I understand how amazing it is to win the NCAA Championships. As a private, Catholic institution (also, may I point out that Catholic schools are notoriously stringent on academics?), Villanova should be setting the example that no matter what, school always comes first -- and let the students do with that what they will.