Marsha Sharp, women's basketball coach
Texas Tech University
Kansas City Star

"When people look back at the history of women's sports, ESPN is going to be regarded as a major player in our sport. What they do has translated into better crowds, and our individual players have become national stars in a way they didn't used to be."

Academics

Paul Sanderford, women's basketball coach
University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Omaha World-Herald

"What it does is it lets kids get a head start academically. And it lets them adjust to being away from home. The summer is a much better time at the University of Nebraska to adjust to college life than when 25,000 students descend on this place in August. I think it's a tremendous rule. But I don't want them here the whole summer. Five weeks is perfect. Then they get to be home for about a month before school starts."

American Indian mascots

Brian Colleary, director of athletics
Duquesne University
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"We're institutions of higher learning. We can ask, would we (display American Indian imagery) in the classroom, or would we do that in the law school? Gee, if we wouldn't, why would we do it in athletics?"

Division III athletics

Ann Die, president
Hendrix College
Conway (Arkansas) Log Cabin Democrat

"What is encouraging (about Division III) is the attempt to ensure that academics will always be placed ahead of athletics experiences, meaning making missed class time reasonable and limiting the length of preseason and postseason play. Most of the schools in Division III are in conferences where the other institutions are academically compatible and the schools can work together academically as well as athletically.

"We've found that in Division III, the student is often very interested in playing two or three sports in continuing his college experience. People talk about the love of the game and competition -- there is no reason to play Division III athletics except for a pure love of the game."

Recruiting

Terence Matthews, director of athletics
Hudson (New Jersey) Catholic Regional High School
Athletic Management

"I cannot help but raise an eyebrow as I read about the difficulty coaches face as they report that 'they are increasingly dealing with broken promises from recruited student-athletes.' They lament that 'today's kids have less integrity.'

"How dare anyone question the integrity of today's kids. Who are we kidding here? The college athletics departments and the NCAA have created this situation, not the kids. First of all, there is no reason to have such a thing as oral commitments. The Letter of Intent exists during a specified time period. It should be enough. The coaches are the ones who are pressuring the student-athletes to orally commit. In most cases, they attempt to get the student to commit during his or her official visit. I would assume that if the student's best interests were of primary concern, the coaches would want the student to use the five official visits in order to get a balanced perspective on the available options.

"As for the coaches, one simply needs to look at (all the) coaches who travel from from one program to the next, usually after the recruiting class has signed its binding Letters of Intent. ...

"Ultimately, it is not an issue of student-athletes and broken promises. The kids simply have learned to play by the same rules as the coaches."

Lew Perkins, director of athletics
University of Connecticut
Athletic Management

On recruiting international student-athletes:

"Our university's mission is to be a nationally renowned university. The administration works hard to have a diversified community, both academically and professionally, so we have faculty and students from all over the world. If our mission and role were different, then maybe recruiting foreign athletes would be more of a critical concern."

Jim Livengood, director of athletics
University of Arizona
Athletic Management

"If we were talking about an intramural or campus rec program, the idea would be to compete, have fun and play lots of people, but that doesn't necessarily reflect the goals of intercollegiate athletics. If we're going to field a team, I think we have a responsibility to our coaches, student-athletes and university to be the very best we can."