When it comes to big-time issues in college sports, the NCAA isn't accustomed to being the underdog. But the Association faced long odds when it backed a bill in January 2000 to ban gambling on college sports, thus launching a David-like campaign against one of the fiercest Goliaths around -- the casino industry.

Had the NCAA's effort been squashed immediately, the initiative probably wouldn't have been noteworthy as perhaps the biggest story of the past year, but as momentum builds toward the bill's possible passage through next year's Congress, there's an upset in the making that would be a landmark in the Association's entry into the new millennium.

Even if the legislation to ban college sports gambling in all states, including Nevada, doesn't pass, the Association will have successfully raised awareness to a growing concern: that betting lines and point spreads are becoming too much of the fabric of college sports, and that players are increasingly subjected to the accompanying pressures.

The NCAA's efforts to call attention to this concern started well before January, but the campaign launched on Capitol Hill 11 months ago certainly brought the issue to a national pulpit. The bill sponsored by Sens. John McCain, R-Arizona, and Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, passed unanimously through the Senate Commerce Committee in April. Similarly, a companion bill sponsored by Reps. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, and Tim Roemer, D-Indiana, was approved by a 19-9 vote in the House Judiciary Committee in September. And had efforts not been made by Nevada legislators to delay the bill's move to the Senate and House floors for a vote, indications are that the bill would have been adopted.

At the very least, McCain has promised that the bill remains near the top of his agenda and will be re-introduced early on in next year's Congress. Such a timetable would make it difficult for opponents to use similar delay tactics to keep the bill from coming to a vote in 2001.

The NCAA's efforts have pushed sports wagering up the issues ladder to where more and more college administrators and decision-makers are taking note. Not only has the bill earned support from politicians, but the NCAA membership has stepped up to the plate as well. Many coaches and administrators have testified before Congress, stating they are concerned about the mounting pressures facing their student-athletes. And the push on college campuses to educate student-athletes about the nature of sports wagering and the risks involved is at an all-time high.

The education effort

Yet, roadblocks remain, the most formidable of which could be that the public doesn't easily differentiate between other forms of gambling and betting on student-athletes and the games they play. Sports gambling and non-sports gambling are prevalent, popular and available, and student-athletes, when warned to stay away from sports wagering themselves, see others ready to place their bets.

"You've got moms and dads going to the casino, and we're telling the kids to stay away," said Lew Perkins, director of athletics at the University of Connecticut. "There's a lot of forces out there against us."

What the Association has done to combat that is to get the issue in front of the public and as many student-athletes as possible, and in as many ways as possible.

"We can't legislate morality or integrity," said the NCAA's Bill Saum, director of agent, gambling and amateurism activities, "but we can provide information. The pressures from gambling are so prevalent on college campuses anymore that we just have to keep after it."

Perhaps as an attempt to defer attention, the casino industry has accused the NCAA of not doing enough to educate student-athletes on the potential ills of gambling abuse. But on the contrary, the NCAA has grabbed student-athletes' attention through a variety of means.

Above and beyond efforts to pass the federal anti-gambling legislation, the NCAA in the past year has:

* Distributed "Don't Bet on It" sports-wagering educational booklets to all NCAA member institutions.

* Provided a list of sports touts and reaffirmed that athletics administrators should not share information with those individuals.

* Sent anti-gambling posters (one targeting male athletes and another targeting female athletes) to Division I institutions, and public service announcement videos to all NCAA member institutions.

* Distributed the first anti-gambling video for women's basketball to Division I institutions.

* Produced the first gambling-education video targeted for Division I Olympic sports participants and Divisions II and III student-athletes.

* Provided anti-gambling presentations to teams in the Men's and Women's Final Fours and the Men's College World Series, and during the men's and women's basketball rules video conference.

In addition, the NCAA adopted legislation, effective August 1, 2000, that establishes a two-tiered process for sanctions against student-athletes who violate the Association's anti-gambling policies. The legislation was adopted as part of the reform package in Division I basketball. Penalties range from the loss of one season of eligibility for any student-athlete who solicits or accepts a bet through organized gambling to permanent ineligibility for student-athletes who engage in point-shaving activities.

Also, the NCAA continued to conduct background checks on college basketball officials who work the Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Championships.

The NCAA also has partnered with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement officials to provide speakers at sports-wagering symposiums and seminars on college campuses.

In other words, the NCAA has plenty of information about gambling and isn't shy about sharing it. And while that effort can't stop student-athletes from becoming involved in gambling activities, it can clearly demonstrate why it wouldn't be a good idea for them to do so.

"Most athletics departments now ask questions from the start (about gambling) that they wouldn't have asked in the past," said Betsy Mosher, senior associate director of athletics at Arizona State University. "And they take a better look at who's around their practices now and who's asking for information about their games."

Robert E. Frederick, director of athletics at the University of Kansas and chair of the NCAA's Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct, said that the educational effort indeed has raised awareness in the college athletics arena, and that the next step is to convince other university administrators to jump on the bandwagon.

"But I think that university administrators have so many other issues currently on their plates, like alcohol and sexually transmitted diseases and drugs and other social issues, that this gambling issue just isn't on their radar screens, which is frustrating to me," Frederick said.

"If they're like me, though, they are holding their breath that something doesn't happen on their campus, because that would shock the whole campus and everybody would say, 'Why didn't we see this coming, why didn't we do something about it?'"

Saum said that many colleges and universities have done a good job of thinking outside the box about ways to impress upon student-athletes that sports wagering can be a vortex.

"Our membership is trying to find ways to teach kids not to gamble," he said. "Is the best way through posters, FBI presentations, or maybe presentations from former student-athletes convicted of gambling? All of those have proven to be effective.

"Whatever the method, the goals are to provide enough information for student-athletes to make the right choice."

Connecticut's Perkins felt so strongly about the issue two years ago that he set up a regional symposium on gambling that attracted administrators and student-athletes from across the country. One of the speakers was Kevin Pendergast, a former Northwestern University student-athlete involved in a highly publicized gambling scandal in 1998. Perkins said when student-athletes see a peer not far removed from them who has run afoul of the law because of gambling, they realize how close they are to the danger zone.

"We just have to work as hard as we can to educate kids to be careful," Perkins said.

"We have taken a personal and professional stance on this. College athletics has changed so much and I don't want the gambling issue to overtake intercollegiate sports."