BOBBY KNIGHT may be the poster boy for obnoxious conduct among college coaches, but he's hardly alone. Flip the channels on most weekends and there will be a parade of red-faced coaches ranting, raving and storming at referees or somebody else.

And that doesn't take into account the behavior that goes on when the cameras are somewhere else; the regular-as-clockwork recruiting scandals; the law-breaking incidents involving pampered, can-do-no-wrong athlete-thugs; or embarrassing facts like the abysmal graduation rates for players at some high-profile college sports factories.

... More than two dozen college football head coaches collect $1 million or more in guaranteed salaries. It is rare for a coach to have any academic responsibilities whatsoever at the institutions.


It is estimated that the NCAA Division 1-A men's basketball tournament - “March Madness” - carries a market value in excess of $500 million a year.


Even women's sports are getting into the act, with the University of Tennessee breaking the $1 million barrier for a basketball coach.


These days, it is unusual for a blue-chip college athlete to stay in school and graduate before turning professional, suggesting college sports is basically a farm league for the pros.


Billionaire businessman T. Boone Pickens donated a record-setting $165 million to the Oklahoma State University athletic program, vowing to build winners. Then those winners can occupy Boone Pickens Stadium, which already had been named for the billionaire for his past generosity to the program.

THE BIG BUSINESS of college sports has caught the attention of the federal government. Some members of Congress have wondered, with considerable justification, why the multi-billion dollar college sports business enjoys tax-exempt status. Bill Thomas, the chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, sent a letter to the NCAA asking pointed questions, such as:


“Beyond rules prohibiting compensation for college athletes, what action has the NCAA taken to ‘retain a clear line of demarcation (as stated in NCAA rules)' between major college sports and professional sports?”


“What additional educational value is received by participation in Division 1-A athletics beyond that which is received by participation in other division or intramural athletics?”


“At D-1A schools, only 55 percent of football players and 38 percent of basketball players graduate ... Are the NCAA's member institutions accepting athletes who would not otherwise be admitted but for their athletic prowess?”


“The defending D-1A national champion in football graduated 29 percent of its players compared to 74 percent of the university's student body ... How well is the NCAA accomplishing its tax-exempt purpose of maintaining ‘the athlete as an integral part of the student body'?”


“How many of your member institutions generate a net profit on the operations of their athletic programs ... how many use the profit for purposes unrelated to the athletic department?”


AND SO ON. Congress has threatened to strip big-time college sports programs of the tax-exempt status, and it is obvious that a good case could be made for that change.

So give poor Bobby Knight a break. He is not the problem. He is merely a symptom, a creation of an environment which bears scant connection to any real academic purpose.