Sport and academic study are often viewed as rivals competing for a student\'s limited hours in the day. Yet a growing body of psychological, neuroscientific, and educational research suggests that the relationship between the two is considerably more cooperative than competitive. This paper synthesises existing literature to examine how participation in sport and regular physical activity influences academic performance, the cognitive mechanisms that connect exercise to learning, and the life skills that sport cultivates in students. Five questions guided the investigation: the statistical relationship between sport and grades, the biological pathways linking physical activity to brain function, the role of sport in building discipline and time management, the effect of sport on stress and mental well-being, and the risks associated with excessive or elite-level training. The findings indicate that moderate, regular participation in sport is consistently associated with better grades, stronger executive function, and lower academic stress, while very high training loads can compress study time and, at the elite level, may coincide with lower academic performance. The paper concludes that sport, practised in balance with academics, is more often an ally of study than its adversary.