And many people decry various aspects of college sports, such as its ability to generate millions of dollars on the efforts of athletes who are compensated with a college education, not payment for their performance. Some call for an end to amateurism, suggesting that athletes compete under "sweatshop'" conditions, and others emphasize the excesses of intercollegiate athletics and the contradictions that big-time sports can mean for respected academic institutions.

People might find it surprising that one such voice concerned about those contradictions is the NCAA, along with the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. The commission's recently issued second decennial report paints a picture of Division I football and men's basketball that we all find disturbing: Poor classroom performance; excessive out-of-class demands on student-athletes; and expenditures that are out of balance, if not out of control.

Clearly, meaningful reform is needed. Equally clear is the need for university presidents to see that it occurs. Fortunately, a new NCAA governance structure based largely on recommendations of the first Knight Commission places the ultimate authority for Division I intercollegiate athletics in a Board of Directors composed of 18 university presidents, including me.

Now, the buck stops with us. From its inception, the Board has focused chiefly on graduation rates and the welfare of student-athletes.

Starting with men's basketball, the Board significantly increased the grade-point averages necessary for freshman eligibility; permitted entering freshman to enroll in the summer with scholarship aid to get an early start on academic work; and proposed scholarship incentives and penalties based on teams' graduation rates. Similar measures for football undoubtedly will follow.

These are first steps. More and bigger steps are needed. A new task force soon will identify major issues the Board must address in the near term and develop mechanisms and timetables to address them.

Next, in my view, a longer-term substantive reform agenda must address the following three issues.

Graduation rates. We should tie eligibility for student-athletes in a meaningful way to progress toward a degree. Moreover, we need to create strong incentives and penalties, affecting both revenue-sharing from NCAA television contracts and the number of scholarships a school can offer in a given sport, based on graduation rates.

Time commitment required of student athletes. The NCAA limits to 20 hours per week the time student-athletes can devote to all related activities during the playing season. Unfortunately, it has become common practice for student-athletes to participate in "voluntary" workouts on a year-round basis, often without medical supervision. We need to shorten playing seasons in many sports and give student-athletes substantial blocks of time during the academic year where they have no commitment to their sports, "voluntary" or otherwise.

Adequate financial support. As for paying student-athletes a salary, as some critics advocate, I hope that day will never come. From its inception, intercollegiate athletics was intended to provide valuable extracurricular experiences for duly enrolled, degree-seeking students. We should focus on reforms in the two sports -- football and men's basketball -- where we have strayed from that ideal rather than abandon principles that so successfully guide the rest of intercollegiate athletics.

However, there is more we can do. So-called full-ride scholarships for student-athletes cover the cost of room, board, books and tuition for the academic year. The true costs of attending college, however, include other items, such as travel to and from home, clothes and incidental expenses. Based on demonstrated financial need, such additional costs should be included in the scholarship stipend. Moreover, student-athletes should be guaranteed year-round health and catastrophic-injury insurance benefits.

We also must remember that most of the revenue generated by football and men's basketball is put to very good use. Nationally, it provides almost $1 billion annually of financial aid to student-athletes in all sports, who on average graduate at higher rates than their peers in the general student body. It also has provided the funding to double, over the past decade, the number of women who participate in intercollegiate athletics.

An overwhelming number of student-athletes will become tomorrow's leaders. It's up to university presidents to see that the entire system of intercollegiate athletics, including football and men's basketball, works in the manner intended, and we intend to do so.