Okay, I admit it -- I really love this time of year. There's something about the sounds of a leather ball bouncing on a hardwood floor and that sweet swish when a shot kisses the net that makes me lose focus on just about everything but basketball. It's March Madness -- when college basketball takes center stage.

Basketball has been important to me since I was in grade school. I remember the day my brother showed me his first pair of black low-top Converse All Stars, just like the Boston Celtics wore back in the day. I was only nine years old, but the fact that my idols wore those shoes made me really want my own pair. That was back in the early 1960s. It didn't take long before the shoe companies caught on to this marketing potential.

Now the major suppliers of sports shoes have their footprints all over collegiate athletics. The American Progress Action Fund's Think Progress wants these companies to step up and promote "Graduation Madness." Nearly half of the teams in this year's Division I NCAA tournament do not meet the minimum academic requirements set by the NCAA. This isn't a new issue. Far too many college programs for far too long have emphasized winning on the court or the football field over achieving in the classroom. Why worry about grades when so many young athletes leave college before graduating to pursue professional careers? Some people think it makes sense -- why should a young basketball player with great talent risk his chances with the NBA by getting hurt while playing in college? Yet, the statistics show that only a tiny percentage of the kids we'll cheer on over the next few weeks of this year's NCAA tournament will actually have a shot at a professional career.

That's why completing college is so important for the vast majority of young athletes. That's why Think Progress wants companies like Reebok, Nike, and Adidas to start paying more attention [1] to academic achievement for our young athletes.