OK, I admit it. I’m not a sports fan. It’s an unpopular position, I know – especially with a major event like the Super Bowl coming up.

I may not know a lot about sports, but I do know a lot about education. And I’m pretty impressed when athletic superstars go the distance with academics, and become fully prepared for careers beyond the field.

So in honor of the upcoming contest of the exalted pigskin, I present a roundup of super-smart and academically minded professional athletes. Let the games begin!

• Recently retired MLB starting pitcher Mike Mussina graduated from Stanford University in 1990 with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He completed his degree in three years and earned All-American honors for baseball.

• NFL quarterback Chad Pennington graduated from Marshall College in 1999 with a 3.83 GPA and a bachelor’s degree in journalism. In college, he was a Heisman Trophy finalist as well as a finalist for a prestigious Rhodes scholarship.

• NBA power forward/center Emeka Okafor earned his bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Connecticut in 2004. He graduated with honors in three years, with a 3.8 GPA, as an Academic All-American.

Of course, not all professional athletes make it all the way through school. But you’ve got to give props to the ones who take the time to go back and earn their degree:

• NBA center Shaquille O’Neal left Louisiana State University to pursue his pro basketball career, but returned to school and received a bachelor’s degree in general studies in 2000.

• Football legend Joe Namath returned to the University of Alabama in 2007 – 42 years later – to earn his bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies.

• NBA All-Star Vince Carter made it back to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2001 to receive his bachelor’s degree in African-American studies.

Honorable mention: Myron Rolle graduated in two-and-a-half years with a pre-med degree from Florida State University. But instead of entering this year’s NFL draft, he’s pursuing a one-year master’s degree in medical anthropology as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University. The aspiring neurosurgeon plans to enter the draft in 2010.

On the flipside, if you’re interested in sports but are a disaster on the field, there are plenty of non-athletic sports careers to choose from, like sports management or broadcast journalism.

Impressive, huh? Maybe I’ll watch more than the commercials on February 1 after all.

Who’s your favorite smart sports star?

-Robyn Tellefsen