A chair is heaved across the basketball court by an irate coach. The camera focuses in on a coach pointing his pen at his team while yelling obscenities.

These scenes are all too common at Division I colleges. But that exact thing may have taken place at Iowa State, with women’s volleyball coaches Jackie Nunez and Sarah Lewis possibly taking the definition of tough love too far.

According to an article in the Ames Tribune, the coaches may have violated some NCAA rules. After an investigation by Athletic Director Gene Smith, Lewis resigned.

Allegations by several current and former players state the coaches verbally abused them, forced them to play while injured, blamed them for the team’s inability to sign certain recruits and forced them to practice more than the 20-hour-week maximum allowed by the NCAA.

In response to the allegations, Smith said there was no proof from the investigation that NCAA rules were ignored and violated.

After the players’ complaints were brought to light, those players were criticized for being weak and not tough enough for Division I competition.

But when does coaching cross the line?

Obviously, when an athlete is signed to play for a Division I school, he or she must expect the pressure to win. It’s terrible to think that prestigious college institutions would promote winning above all else, but the truth is, it all boils down to money.

No one wants a losing team, including those students who go to college only for educational reasons.

But as the saying goes, ‘winning isn’t everything.’ And sometimes the coaches of Division I schools forget that.

When coaches abuse their players — whether it be verbally, emotionally or physically — it’s wrong.

Winning should never mean so much that a coach of a Division I basketball team would physically abuse his son on national television, as was the case with notoriously aggressive Indiana Coach Bobby Knight.

The lives of athletes should not be exploited. Nor should their bodies be used like cattle to feed a growing society’s hunger to win.

A college athlete’s main goal should be receiving his or her education, not getting a Big 12 Conference championship.