Reading, writing and reform.(My Turn)(Column)

For many football fans, coaches and teams, the college football preview issue of the SPORTING NEWS conjures up the dreams, excitement and possibilities of the season to come. Maybe this will be that perfect season, that undefeated team, that championship year.

But for 53 Division I-A schools, even a perfect season won't be good enough. The BCS has stacked the deck against them.

Of 117 schools with Division I-A football, 53 have little or no hope of participating even in one of the top four bowl games. And many of the fans watching the bowl games will not realize how few of the student-athletes on the field actually will graduate. Sure, a fraction will enjoy careers in professional sports, but most will walk away with no degree and limited prospects.

Athletics reform is desperately needed in intercollegiate athletics, and the changes must occur now if Division I-A athletics--and our universities--are to retain any degree of respectability.

Athletics reform has been a topic of discussion for decades, and change has occurred. But reform is having trouble keeping pace with transgressions. Ever-increasing commercialization and the concentration of money, power and control in the hands of a few universities are shaping intercollegiate athletics.

To fix the system, we must increase the academic performance and graduation rates of student-athletes, create an open system of postseason play in football and hold presidents and chancellors accountable for their athletics departments. You might call these the "Three A's" of reform--academics, access and accountability.

Academics. When did "student" get dropped from "student-athlete"? The graduation rates of Division I-A athletes, especially at schools with some of the most successful athletics programs, are embarrassingly low. Of the 56 programs sending teams to bowls last season, 33--more than half--had graduation rates of less than 50 percent, according to the NCAKs 2002 graduation rates report. Fourteen schools graduated fewer than 40 percent of their football players, and several schools fewer than 30 percent.