Mike Bianchi, columnist
Orlando Sentinel

In response to a comment from Chris Webber, a former University of Michigan basketball player who said, "Look how many millions the school made off of us, and what do we get out of it?"

"How about a chance at a better life, Mr. Webber?

"Maybe someone should tell Webber that parents scrimp and save for their entire lives to scrape together enough money to send their kids to college.

"Maybe someone should tell him that 90 percent of college football and basketball players would never even be accepted into their universities based on their educational credentials (test scores and high-school grades), but are admitted and given a chance at a degree because of their physical prowess.

"Maybe someone should tell him that the vast majority of college players will never make millions in the pros and would not have the academic or financial wherewithal to get a college degree without athletics.

"What do we get out of it? How about the fact that raw recruits are taken by a university, instructed by the finest coaches money can buy, nourished by nutrition specialists, strengthened by state-of-the-art weight facilities, and bulked and built into NFL- or NBA-ready athletes who sign contracts for mega-millions?

"Don't ever again let anybody tell you how colleges exploit their athletes. These days, it's the other way around. Colleges are filled with athletes who care nothing about ruining the reputation of their schools. They stop off for a year or two, eat up thousands of dollars worth of groceries, then bolt to the pros.

"And as the star athlete motors off to the NBA in his brand new Cadillac Escalade, he leaves his college behind, choking and gagging on the dark, scandalous fumes."

Basketball issues

Mike Krzyzewski, head men's basketball coach
Duke University
USA Today

"(Basketball) should be separate from other sports. It's done at our university, but not at the NCAA. To compare men's basketball and the kids playing it to anything else is difficult to do.

"When you have a billion-dollar business, you have to start making decisions that are consistent with having a billion-dollar business while maintaining the integrity. Our rules, most of them, are pretty much the way they were in the 1970s. The game has grown, and (so have) the pressures of the game, especially on the ones playing the game. The culture is different."

College sports media

Stacy Paetz, ESPN reporter
Mobile Register

Discussing whether female journalists should be permitted inside football locker rooms:

"Sure, I might miss a great locker-room speech, but the way I look at it, they don't come into mine. There are some female reporters who might get real angry about that, but I just say I have enough rapport with the athletics directors, the coaches and assistant coaches that if I want to know something that badly, I can get it from them afterward. ...

"I get hit on a lot, but it's mostly from the mascots. And honestly, they can never say a bad thing because they can't say anything at all."