T.K. Wetherell, president

Florida State University

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"I believe we’ve gotten to the point where we realize that one bad incident erases a lot of good ones. We’ve had our issues, but right now the attitude is that just going out and embarrassing yourself and your university ... coaches just aren’t going to put up with it any more."

Phil Fulmer, head football coach

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"There is less tolerance now because we want to spend our time with the young people who appreciate the opportunity they have — and not the handful who don’t."

Robert Khayat, chancellor

University of Mississippi

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"I know what I’m saying will fall on deaf ears. But I believe today’s student-athlete is more isolated than ever from campus life. They’ve moved off campus into apartments. They take their meal money and eat at McDonald’s. They go to class, to practice, to the weight room and then to tutorials. Today, our student-athletes need more help and supervision than ever before — and we are giving them less."

Sharon K. Stoll, professor

University of Idaho

Kansas City Star

"Everyone is trying to do something good for the athlete. ‘You don't have to take these harder classes’ or ‘We’ll take care of it if you get in trouble.’

"So if they get in trouble, they call the coach. They lose the skills to make good decisions, and pretty soon they don’t have a clue about what’s acceptable in society."

Rich Rodriguez, head football coach

West Virginia University

The New York Times

"It’s all about the money — any administrator will tell you that. It’s not for the excitement of college football. Let’s not kid ourselves."

Phillip Whitten, executive director

College Swimming Coaches Association of America

SwimmingWorldMagazine.com

"No longer will we just sit back and allow misguided, and often ill-informed, athletics administrators to kill off teams whose members personify the NCAA ideal of the student-athlete. We intend to fight for every program.

"In fact, we intend to take action in several areas: producing publications, holding seminars at our and (the American Swimming Coaches Association) national conventions, and making information available on our Web site, as well as the Web sites of our supporters, on how coaches can make their programs virtually ‘cut-proof.’

"Further, we plan immediately to set up a legal-defense network, in which attorneys with swimming backgrounds will represent threatened teams and the CSCAA. ...

"At a time when this country is in the midst of a full-blown obesity pandemic — with all its potential for heart disease, diabetes and other diseases a few years down the line — schools are cutting the acknowledged best all-around sport for maintaining lifetime fitness.

"What are they thinking?"

Dave Clawson, head football coach

University of Richmond

Richmond Times-Dispatch

"They are strictly made for I-A football and the impact on television. I-AA football and other levels already are playing games in less than three hours. This rule is for I-A football and ESPN and CBS and those networks so they can fit football games in that three-hour window. It’s a rule being made for strictly one reason, and it’s impacting people it wasn’t designed to impact."

David Ogden, assistant professor

University of Nebraska at Omaha

"Baseball doesn’t have very much value (in the African-American community). African-American kids see it as a slow, Caucasian sport. It’s a slow game for white kids."

Bruce Weber, head men’s basketball coach

University of Illinois, Champaign

New York Times

"In swimming, they go on club teams and swim all summer. In baseball, they go to play in Alaska. In basketball — and we are on national TV and make all the money — we can’t go near our kids. It makes no sense."

Mike Krzyzewski, head men’s basketball coach

Duke University

New York Times

"There has to be a way that we allow basketball players in our country, whether it be at the high school or collegiate level, to work on their game year round."