One Small Step...

ANOTHER YEAR, another set of NCAA reforms. Another step in the right direction. Another small step. If the reforms are enforced, college athletics will be a little less corrupt. They will still be corrupt.

The much-ballyhooed reform package recently approved by the NCAA Presidents Commission focuses on four major problems in college athletics today.

1. Athletes are isolated from their classmates. The 1991 reforms go a long way toward integrating athletes into their college communities by phasing out athletic dorms and reducing training table meals to one per day. This is a welcome change. Varsity athletes deserve a chance to live the college experience.

2. Academic standards for athletes are woefully low. athletes often remain eligible for competition by maintaining an absurdly light courseload that leaves them nowhere near graduation when their college careers are over. And once their careers are over, their scholarships are revoked. Thanks for the NCAA championship, Joe. Sorry you still can't read.

The Presidents Commission drove a dent into these practices by requiring fourth-year students to have completed at least half their degree requirements to retain their eligibility. But it did not go far enough. Next year it should force colleges to pay for their recruits' education until graduation, no matter how long it takes. Even if the athlete gets injured. Even if the athlete quits the team. And the NCAA's minimum academic standards for athletes are still too low. Raising them further would encourage high school and college athletes alike to hit the books. So long as colleges continue to offer scholarships based solely on athletic ability, they should at least offer recipients the full range of academic opportunities.

3. Athletics receive too much emphasis on many college campuses. The presidents addressed the problem by slashing coaching staffs, limiting practice time and prohibiting independent offseason competition. These reforms are fine, though they will be expensive to enforce, but they miss the real point. Tightened academic standards are a better way to ensure that academics do not receive short shrift.

4. "Amateur" athletics are corrupted by the almighty dollar. Money is clearly the top problem in college sports today. Athletic programs get rich off multi-billion dollar TV deals. Coaches face intense booster pressure to win at any cost or get fired. Corruption pervades the system.

To remedy this unfortunate situation, the Presidents Commission did...uh...nothing. They did nothing to limit the influence of alumni support groups. They did nothing to prevent the megabucks earned by football programs from flowing directly back into football. As Harvard Assistant Athletic Director Andrea S. Wickerham said, "They dealt with the problem, but not with the cause."

ONLY A COMPLETE OVERHAUL of the NCAA would prevent the systematic exploitation of college athletes. That will happen when the influence of TV cash coffers is no longer preeminent. That will happen when deep-seated attitudes about the role of college athletes make a 180-degree turn. That will happen, as Bertolt Brecht once wrote, on "St. Nevercome's Day."

At the very least, the NCAA should mandate that any athletic revenues go into the university's general fund. Athletic departments--like English departments--should receive their yearly funding from the central administration of the school, as is the practice at Harvard.

Until St. Nevercome's Day, "that day when goodness will pay," the NCAA should be content to stop the athletic expenditure spiral. Educational programs, not athletic programs, should reap the benefits of big-money sports.

Once again, the NCAA has taken a bite out of corruption. Once again, it hasn't gone far enough.