has received an average education.

What does this have to do with the NCAA?

While some may consider it a stretch, the fact is the NCAA and college athletics have played a role in this decline. Specifically, the higher education community has permitted college athletics to become more about athletics than education, more about winning than personal development, and more about glory on the courts and fields than success in the classroom. In a nutshell, our enormous emphasis on elite athletics has come to undermine not only higher education’s but our entire nation’s educational values and academic priorities. That is not to say that the entire college athletics enterprise is broken. To the contrary, the benefits and positive influence of university-sponsored athletics programs that are fiscally sound and academically responsible can be enormous. The issue is with the Division I model. It has come to mirror the professional sports model in virtually every way. And our colleges and universities have no business being in the business of professional athletics. American higher education does not need to sponsor professional athletics to effectively meet its public mission.

To think that Division I college athletics, one of the most visible institutions in our culture, an institution that is housed in the flagship of our nation’s educational system, has no impact on our collective cultural consciousness and priorities regarding education is simply not realistic. Yet, time after time, on campus after campus, we continue to send the message that athletics is more important than academics. And the public notices. According to a survey released by the Knight Commission in 2006, by a 2-to-1 margin, Americans believe that college sports are more like professional sports than amateur sports.

Of any institution in American society that absolutely should not permit those priorities to be confused, it should be higher education. If the higher education community cannot make the case that education is more important to the economic health of our nation and the future of our children than athletics, who can? If the higher education community cannot model that principle — not with hollow rhetoric and tired attempts at reform measures that have yielded minimal results, but with bold, progressive, visionary action — what other American institution will?

While a certain segment of the population will always watch the games for entertainment purposes, without a fundamental, philosophical redirection of the fully professionalized, Division I enterprise, the Association faces the very real possibility of becoming an educationally irrelevant institution. If that occurs, it will have failed in its mission. Given the tremendous stakes for higher education and our society, we simply cannot afford for that to happen. Athletics’ potential as a powerful educational tool is too important to squander.

Some points to consider: First, the current system of professionalized, scholarship Division I athletics is broken. There is no longer any lack of information or understanding of the problems associated with the existing system. There is simply too much data and evidence to continue to explain away those problems as short-term or limited in scope.

Second, attempts to reform athletics by raising academic standards have had minimal effect. We have been at the academic-reform game since 1982, when a group of presidents, working through the American Council on Education, proposed a set of academic standards that significantly raised the bar for freshman eligibility. Yet it can be argued that the system is just as corrupt and educationally bankrupt as ever. The fact is, as long as athletes are getting paid to play, the professional model — complete with its escalating budgets, athlete exploitation and attendant public skepticism — will remain. While raising academic standards might result in a few more athletes graduating, the fundamental underpinnings, culture and operating principles of the professional system will remain.

Finally, contrary to popular belief, the Association is totally capable of enacting fundamental change. It is clear that for the first time in the history of American higher education, presidents not only have the means by which to implement bold change, but also a growing critical mass of people, institutions and associations that will support such change. Presidents can reform athletics in any way they choose because they have the ability, authority and increasing institutional and public support to do so. In other words, we may finally have reached the tipping point for revolutionary change.

All that is needed is the match to light the fire; one event or initiative that begins the avalanche of change. That initiative is the elimination of the athletics scholarship in favor of need-based aid. It’s time to face the fact that Division I scholarship athletes are professionals.

The athletics scholarship has served to make our educational institutions complicit in perpetuating a dangerous and counter-productive cultural myth. Specifically, far too many parents and youngsters believe sports, rather than education, is the ticket to future success. While moving to a need-based aid system may not completely change that myth, one thing is certain: Our educational institutions should have absolutely no part in perpetuating it. It is higher education’s responsibility to provide societal leadership, including leadership regarding the proper relationship between athletics and academics. And the elimination of athletics scholarships will have a tremendous impact beyond the walls of the academe in that regard.

It is also time to confront those who claim that eliminating athletics scholarships will hurt the quality of game and thus result in a less desirable commercial product. That is a myth. Most people want college athletics to stand for something other than turning a buck, preparing the next generation of professional stars and winning at any cost. The fact is, de-professionalizing the operation will actually increase college athletics’ public and commercial appeal. Not only would its fan base increase, but corporate interest also would increase as companies prefer to associate their product with positive and wholesome institutions.

There is no doubt a place for highly competitive, elite athletics in America. The question is simply whether that place should be in our educational institutions. America is the only country in the world where that responsibility rests with schools and universities.

Students in counties such as Japan, Germany, France and South Korea consistently outperform American students in science and math. Our children are competing for the scientific and high-tech jobs that will fuel the world economy against children who attend educational systems where the primacy of education and academic achievement is absolutely clear.

In the end, higher education built the system of professional athletics and higher education can change it. But to successfully change that system will require an unequivocal commitment — not through hollow rhetoric, but principled action — to restructuring our athletics programs to be first and foremost about academic integrity and achievement rather than providing professionalized sports entertainment. And the single most important initiative that will drive that point home is the elimination of the athletics scholarship in favor of need-based aid.

So, as we celebrate the Association’s first Centennial, we also must look to the future. And we must do so cognizant of three facts. First, the next 100 years will be a period of tremendous change and challenge for American higher education as it struggles with educating our populace to compete successfully in the global, creative economy of the future. Second, we must recognize the NCAA’s tremendous cultural influence and impact and thoughtfully consider how to use and project that influence to help higher education meet our society’s educational needs most effectively. And third, to implement the type of progressive change necessary to ensure that the NCAA and college athletics remain educationally relevant for the next century will require courage and conviction on the part of higher education leaders that has yet to be displayed in matters relating to athletics.

The stakes are high. The challenges are great. But the time for progressive change is ripe. It is against this backdrop, rather than the specific needs and traditions of the athletics community, that the elimination of athletics scholarships and the professional sports culture they breed must be considered.