Rozette Rago for The New York Times
They are sports that bring in little in the way of money or notoriety or attention compared with the behemoths, football and basketball.
In college athletics, volleyball, water polo, sailing, tennis and soccer are relatively small-time affairs that don’t fill stadiums or drive billion-dollar media contracts, and that is why they are at the center of what was described as the broadest college admissions fraud the Justice Department has uncovered.
Just like the high-profile sports like football and basketball, coaches in the so-called Olympic sports are generally allowed to reserve several slots each year for students who might not otherwise gain admission.