Last month, the NCAA/USOC Task Force completed its final written report, which marks the end of the first phase of a process that is noteworthy for several reasons.

First, the task force represents the latest chapter in an evolving cooperative relationship between the NCAA and the USOC. Both organizations and their members face significant challenges in the years ahead. Some of the answers to those challenges are likely to be found in the efficiencies that can be gained through cooperative efforts in areas such as facility use, sport promotion, the employment of coaches -- and perhaps even the funding of athletics scholarships.

The task force was established by NCAA President Myles Brand in May 2004 to develop recommendations designed to protect and expand the opportunities for American student-athletes and coaches to realize the benefits associated with participation in collegiate athletics programs and sports traditionally included in the program for the Olympic Games.

The work of the task force brought into sharper focus the nature of the threat that puts at risk the sponsorship of Olympic sports at so many colleges and universities. As the task force's understanding of the issues surrounding the sponsorship/elimination of those sports evolved, so did our appreciation of the magnitude and complexity of the problem.

Much about the economics of higher education is under stress in America, and athletics are no exception. And for the majority of schools, the next decade promises to present significant new challenges to the sponsorship of a broad and diverse athletics program. That reality, stark though it may be, also helps to expose the sophistry of arguments that attempt to place the challenges faced by the Olympic sports at the feet of Title IX. Continued efforts to demonstrate a causal connection between the enforcement of Title IX and the elimination of Olympic sports from America's college and university campuses is not only wrong, it is counterproductive because it diverts attention from the real issues that must be addressed.

The sponsorship of Olympic sports by America's colleges and universities is undoubtedly a critical component of America's Olympic success. That is reflected in the fact that in any given Olympiad, as many as 80 percent of the U.S. team members (and a significant portion of the foreign delegations) are or have been participants in NCAA programs. Our country's Olympic success, while important, is not, however, the most important reason for taking extraordinary measures to help preserve those sports. The primary reason as identified by the task force is more central to the educational mission of the schools. In a well-administered educational program, participation in collegiate athletics represents a uniquely valuable educational experience for student-athletes and enriches the quality of campus life generally. As such, there is value in maximizing the opportunity for young people to participate in and benefit from that experience.

During the past 15 years, colleges and universities included among the NCAA's Division I membership dropped 594 programs in the sports that are the focus of the NCAA/USOC Task Force report. The members of the task force understand well that none of these decisions was made lightly or easily. Each represented a difficult choice made under a unique set of circumstances and in the context of ever-growing financial pressures. But those circumstances, no matter how compelling, cannot mitigate the very real loss associated with a decision to eliminate a sport from a college or university athletics program. If, for example, we assume an average squad size of 20 athletes, the elimination of 594 programs means that since 1990, nearly 12,000 student-athletes experienced the loss of an activity that was central to their educational experience (perhaps even the reason they chose to attend the school in the first place). And a much larger number of prospective student-athletes lost the opportunity to reap the benefits of participating in the sport they loved at that school.

A decision to eliminate a sport also means that coaches who may have been among the institution's best educators may no longer be able to use the school's arena, field or pool as a place to teach young people. It means that a potentially valuable link to the university's past has been lost. And it means that the unique (and uniquely valuable) role played by America's colleges and universities in preparing coaches and student-athletes to represent the United States in international competition has been diminished.

Those very tangible consequences flowing from the elimination of sports make the work begun by the task force so important.

The task force's recommendations include:

* The NCAA and USOC should jointly make an ongoing investment in (while also seeking the investment of others) a new independent charitable foundation for the purpose of fostering the sponsorship of Olympic sports by America's colleges and universities.

* Establish an electronic syndication system to identify and distribute to media outlets (including, in particular, campus newspapers and local papers in college towns) news and features related to the at-risk and emerging sports, and the student-athletes and coaches who participate in them.

* From among materials already created by sports such as wrestling, swimming and tennis, identify and share best practices for responding to a threatened elimination of a program.

* Survey the NCAA membership to identify the preferred strategies to be implemented to control the costs associated with operating at-risk and emerging sports.

* Consider modifying NCAA amateurism, participation, and competition rules to increase the likelihood that some of the most accomplished athletes in the at-risk and emerging sports will continue to participate in collegiate athletics.

While no single recommendation can reverse a trend that has developed over a quarter of a century, the task force believes that, taken as a whole, these recommendations and the others in its report can and will make a difference -- a difference that ensures that future generations of student-athletes and coaches will continue to benefit from participation in diverse athletics programs.

The recommendations, and the full report of the task force, will be available soon on both the USOC and NCAA Web sites. Task force members urge a review of those recommendations. But even more importantly, we hope you will contribute to their implementation. As indicated at the outset of this column, the submission of the task force report does not mark the end of this process, but rather its beginning. That process will play out over many years and its success will be measured by our ability, as a community of educators, to ensure that America's colleges and universities continue to offer students the benefits of a diverse and well-run athletics program.

Jack Swarbrick, an Indianapolis-based attorney with extensive experience in both collegiate and Olympic sports, chaired the USOC/NCAA Task Force.