It was ironic that in the coverage of the University of Georgia basketball scandal, more than one reporter suggested there was a "winner" in all of this: the University of Tennessee's basketball program. Because Georgia discontinued its season, Tennessee received a first-round bye in the Southeastern Conference tournament. Tennessee fans may have been celebrating, but when athletics scandal taints a university, we all lose.

If universities can't run their athletics programs with integrity, can the public trust them to accomplish their core mission -- the training of minds that will make the world a better place? Further, if our colleges tacitly endorse activities that undermine educational achievement in the name of athletics glory, they provide an example for all to emulate. In short, higher education is leading society in the wrong direction when it comes to athletics.

This is so because, in the public eye, the gap between Division I athletics, particularly football and basketball but with other sports marching down the same road, is becoming increasingly narrow. As evidenced in the discouragingly low graduation rates of the majority of teams in this year's Division I men's basketball tournament and football bowl games, it can be argued that the contract between athlete and institution no longer represents "pay (scholarship) for education." It simply reinforces the public perception that, just like the pros, college athletes are on campus first and foremost to play ball.

Pro sports also is about paying whatever you have to for coaches, staff, facilities, scouting, travel and anything else -- regardless of how outrageous -- that coaches believe might make the difference between winning and losing. This culture of spending to win has escalated to a point to where it threatens the fiscal integrity of a growing number of institutions.

Professional sports also is about playing anywhere at any time to reap television revenues. And professional athletics is about the expectation that athletes train year-round and sacrifice their bodies for "the program." All this is fine for professional football players. But it's a grotesque distortion of the mission of higher education.

The influence of athletics programs has become more negative than positive on many fronts. The worst of these can be summed up simply: We have come to glorify athletics accomplishment far more than academic achievement.

The extent to which organized sport subverts our nation's educational interests are well-documented. At the high-school level, it is the passing of athletes who have not mastered the required work. The prevailing notion is that it is acceptable if Johnny can't read as long as he can play. This academic fraud is perpetuated when our institutions of higher learning spend significant resources recruiting and later admitting Johnny, despite the fact that he is unqualified to perform college work and unlikely to graduate -- all this in the name of "educational opportunity," and at the expense of academic integrity.

Further, the "in your face" mentality seen in some of today's athletes hardly suggests that sport is teaching humility, empathy, conflict resolution and respect for others. A lack of civility to competitors is considered an attribute and violence is glorified. In sport, there are no rules of civility. There is no trust. There are no standards of acceptable behavior, or, if there are, they can easily be bent, broken or amended if the player is good enough. In the athletics culture, there is no order and but one rule: Win at any cost.

Higher education also has played a significant role in the development of a sports system that is badly out of step with our nation's health needs. At earlier and earlier ages, our "elitist" system weeds out all but the most talented athletes. Our organized sports enterprise, with colleges and universities leading the way, has failed to promote the idea that sport for pure exercise is positive, fun and healthy. Rather, athletics must be about winning and developing future superstars. The result is that the elite play while everyone else watches. Meanwhile, our nation becomes more obese.

Predictably, the recent spate of scandals will rekindle the athletics reform debate. But it is clear that athletics reform is no longer about the traditional fare of student-athlete welfare, academic integrity and presidential control. Today, reform is about the cultural values we will pass on to our children and grandchildren. It is about ensuring that we prize and reinforce values such as honesty, intelligence and civility over athletics prowess. And it is about how our educational system should use sports to promote fitness and public health.

For these reasons, we must consider seriously the most fundamental issue relating to the role of athletics in higher education: whether the mission of higher education is best served by the game as it's played today.

It must be made clear that simply because 100,000 people may attend a football game does not mean that athletics is indispensable. American higher education was around for more than 200 years before the first intercollegiate athletics contest and will continue to provide quality education, produce important research and contribute to society with or without the current professional model of college athletics.

For more than 100 years, we have embraced the notion that elite athletics are a positive influence within our educational institutions. We live in an age, however, whose currency is intellectual muscle, not gladiatorial feats. It is against this backdrop that we must reconsider whether higher education's tremendous investment in athletics continues to be a sound one.

And the fundamental question is this: By embracing the principles and practices of professional athletics and the values of the entertainment industry, has higher education become less able to meet the intellectual and public-health challenges of the new millennium?

The issue is balance. Somewhere along the line, our cultural consensus regarding athletics and education has become wildly distorted. Society looks to higher education to provide leadership on a broad array of issues, including the proper role of athletics in our culture. Perhaps this recent string of scandals presents higher education with an opportunity to send a clear and important message to our sports-crazed populace: As much as we love college sports, we must love and value education and public health more.

John R. Gerdy is a visiting professor in sports administration at Ohio University and author of "Sports: The All-American Addiction."