Dave Hart Jr., director of athletics
Florida State University
USA Today

Discussing whether there should be a Division I-A football championship:

"One of my concerns about college football is if we maintain the status quo and don't do anything to bring added value to what we're doing. ... I don't know what the next five to 10 years will hold as it relates to our competitiveness in the marketplace for advertisers and fans."

Graham Spanier, president
Pennsylvania State University
USA Today

"It's possible down the road but not likely. There is virtually no sentiment in that direction right now, (and) I don't think that's an option in the near term."

Diversity in hiring

Steve Bilsky, director of athletics
University of Pennsylvania
The Daily Pennsylvanian

"The first step is to find as diverse a pool as possible. The second step is to hire the best person, without any kind of discrimination in the process or the hiring. They are not exclusive of each other."

Athletics spending

Robert Frank, professor
Cornell University
SI.com

Discussing a study he conducted that shows little, if any, correlation between increased athletics spending and increased donor giving or quality of admissions:

"Teams that play games on Saturday, half of them win and half of them lose no matter how much everybody spends. The real finding is there is absolutely not a shred of evidence that if all major college athletics programs were to cut spending by, say, 25 percent or even 50 percent that there would be any reduction in the gains attributed to athletics programs -- financial, alumni donations. All of those gains would proceed on pace."

R. Gerald Turner, president
Southern Methodist University
SI.com

"I've been a university president now for about 20 years and I have never found any relationship between alumni giving to academic programs and the success of the athletics program. Most senior fund-raisers understand that raising money for the academic program is not going to be affected by that. They may be able to build a bigger stadium or put new seats in the gym, but it is not going to put more endowed chairs in their faculty."

Milestones

Larry Bock, head women's volleyball coach
Juniata College
Associated Press

Discussing his 1,000th career victory:

"This is a we thing, not a me thing."

NCAA regulations

Gwen Knapp, columnist
San Francisco Chronicle

"NCAA regulations tend to provoke rhetorical extremism, demanding Congressional intervention or salaries for football and basketball players. The solutions are at least as absurd as the problems.

"Pay the players? It would bankrupt the teams in nonrevenue sports. A second-string punter would receive cash, and an Olympic runner would have no uniform. True, the football team brings in money, but not the punter specifically.

"Get Congress involved? That substitutes one form of institutional lunacy for another. If anything, the NCAA is better qualified to oversee Congress. It's more democratic.

"At least, the NCAA answers to all of its members -- not equally, but it does answer to all of them. That's why those goofy regulations exist, to protect competitive opportunities for schools that don't want to buy athletes and don't want their athletes to be so consumed by sports that they can never go to class."