Pay for play

John Parry, athletics director
Butler University
Indianapolis Star

"The NCAA faces a tough dichotomy. If they further separate out athletics -- should you pay student-athletes a stipend, for example -- the gap will get very wide and the Butlers of the world won't try to keep up. Instead, you're seeing some moves in the other direction, such as reductions in scholarships."

Gary Barnett, head football coach
University of Colorado, Boulder
Associated Press

"For about five years, we've known that capacity was there to give money. But the presidents have voted it down each time.

"I think it's good. I think it's needed. That kind of money isn't going to keep a kid in school as opposed to going to the NFL. But it's the right thing to do. In order for the level of the game to be what it is, they have to work all year. The demands on them are tremendous. I don't think it's going to break anybody. And the money's there.

"I've been for it all along, but the presidents have fought us. Maybe now they'll come along."

Guy Morriss, head football coach
Baylor University
Associated Press

"I think (pay for play) is inevitable. The day is coming when we're going to start paying players. How do you determine how much is enough? What's it going to be used for? Where does it come from? It still has to be answered.

"Any time money becomes involved, anything can change. I would think it would definitely change college sports."

Escalating athletics programs

Joanne V. Creighton, president
Mount Holyoke College
Hartford Courant

"(W)hen success on the fields means bringing in recruits who, were it not for sports, would hardly give our schools a second glance, and when regular students can no longer walk onto a team, then we have gone too far. ...

"Every college wants to be competitive in sports, but it doesn't take a professor of statistics to point out that most sporting contests produce one winner and one loser. If every college wants to be that winner all the time, and all of us will do whatever we can to ensure it, then we are on a road to disaster that leaves our educational missions by the wayside. ...

"We at women's colleges are as close as it comes to preserving the collegiate ideal: Our athletes stand out for their camaraderie, determination and discipline, rather than double standards in admission or academic underperformance. But it is evident that even for us the trend is in the wrong direction, that the competitive forces in the education marketplace and the NCAA will push us to subvert our educational values in order to win on the field. That is, unless we slow it down -- unless educational leaders commit themselves to maintaining a level playing field instead of competing in a self-perpetuating and self-defeating game of one-upmanship.

"As colleges, we can invest even more to try to inch ahead of the next school, or we can be true to our roots and remember how it is that we best serve American families and American society. In the athletics arms race, to the victor go the spoils, but to the parents and students goes the bill."