1. Sports
Movies as varied as All the Right Moves, Forrest Gump and Varsity Blues have played on the idea that playing a little football is a great way to ease your way into college. In All the Right Moves, Tom Cruise couldn’t possibly afford to go to college any other way; the good-hearted Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) couldn’t possibly qualify to attend the University of Alabama if he didn’t run very, very fast; while James Van Der Beek turns the notion on its head as a smart kid who doesn’t need football to attend college but does it anyway to prove a point.