I can attest to the truthfulness of that saying after Tulane's year-long review of its Division I-A athletics program that ended June 10. It was a difficult process, and among the possibilities considered was the death of our 113-year-old football program or a move to Division III athletics.

The Tulane board's study of athletics began in May 2002, part of a long-planned study called for by our strategic plan. The first phase was a six-month intensive review of intercollegiate athletics at the national level -- the different NCAA divisions, the requirements for different divisions, the level at which Tulane's peer institutions play, and the effect of the Bowl Championship Series on the overall picture.

We did not like what we saw. In our studies, we found an intercollegiate athletics system increasingly out of step with the stated academic goals and aspirations of Tulane University. We found an increasing commercialization of athletics, where competition was more focused on maximizing TV revenues and corporate sponsorships than on equal access, love of the game and the education of true student-athletes.

We also found a deepening chasm between the haves and the have-nots in intercollegiate athletics -- the "haves" being the 63 schools of the Bowl Championship Series and the "have-nots" being the 53 non-BCS schools with Division I-A programs. Tulane, by virtue of being a member of Conference USA, was prevented from participating in one of the BCS games several years ago despite an undefeated season. Football is the only NCAA-

sponsored sport that does not have a playoff system for postseason play. This fact is to the detriment of all Division I-A programs and to our fans.

The BCS has created this deepening chasm, and whether it can ever be filled is a matter of question. It is not a matter of question as to whether one or more of the non-BCS schools will fall into the abyss. It is virtually unavoidable if things do not begin to change, and change quickly. Tulane came perilously close to being the first to go.

The process was both illuminating and painful. Media leaks inflamed the local fan base and threatened to compromise the board's deliberations but, fortunately, did not do so. We learned that the Tulane fan base appeared to be greater than ticket sales or attendance figures had indicated. We learned that Tulane athletics -- particularly, Tulane football -- was a cherished tradition among our alumni and local community. We learned that, at least in the short term, that fan base of alumni and community members was willing to support the program financially. We learned that a great deal of misinformation can spread quickly and is not so quickly set straight. We learned that a bigger issue of Tulane's place as a national research university in the community and in the city of New Orleans needed to be addressed. We were reminded that we were a model program consistently ranked among the top universities each year in terms of student-athlete graduation rates.

The university's Division I-A program did not die, and we emerged as a stronger university from having made the effort to complete the study. We learned a lot about ourselves, about our community, about intercollegiate athletics in general, and about the priorities we have as a university and the proper role of athletics at our university.

The board's ultimate decision to remain in Division I-A athletics, while it might seem so on the surface, was not a support of the status quo. We have asked our athletics department to meet annual benchmarks and reduce its annual deficit from $7 million to $2 million by 2007 through a combination of increased revenue generation and expense reductions. We anticipate making the necessary adjustments without sacrificing any of our nonrevenue programs that offer opportunities to some of our finest student-athletes. In fact, we expect to add back a men's track program that was eliminated two years ago. We don't want the expense reductions to come at the cost of the nonrevenue sports, if at all possible.

The board also called for us to change the national climate for intercollegiate athletics so that a program such as Tulane's -- a clean program with one of the highest student-athlete graduation rates in the country -- would be an asset rather than a poor stepchild.

Toward that end, I have arranged a teleconference later this month for presidents of both non-BCS and BCS schools. Participating in that conference will be NCAA President Myles Brand, who already has endorsed programs under way to enhance Division I academic requirements. Our focus as a group of presidents/chancellors will be to gain access to postseason play in football, press for even higher academic expectations for student-athletes, and to enact NCAA legislation that lowers, rather than increases, the cost of being a Division I-A school.

Scott S. Cowen is president of Tulane University.