You would think it is the end of civilization as we know it.

According to scores of media reports over the last two months, the NBA's rule that a young man must be out of high school a year and at least 19 years old to enter its draft --...

The first African-American head football coach in what today is the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) -- the 119 institutions that compete in the annual postseason bowl games -- was hired in 1979. In the 30 years since, a grand total of 27 African-Americans have been head coaches...

There is a long-held -- but not very honorable -- axiom among road warriors that what goes on the road stays on the road. It's an unspoken, universally understood, no-tell agreement among both friends and foes that the tales of travel won't follow you home.

In a way, I suppose,...

There will be more head coaches of color at NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision schools than ever in history when the 2009 season gets underway. And more were hired than ever before at the end of the 2008 season. Since 2005, the number has increased by 300 percent.

I'm...

Don't get me wrong.

The work to ensure the civil rights of significant groups of American citizens is never done. There will always be issues that must be addressed and addressed aggressively. Most often through neglect but not infrequently as the result of prejudice and malevolence, the rights of...

I returned recently from a trip to China, where I was a guest of the Ministry of Education. The Chinese had a successful Olympics, and they want to expand their approach to sports from one that focuses on preparing elite athletes for international competition to one that also includes coupling...

There is something very wrong taking place in sports, including college sports.

It isn't universal. It doesn't happen all the time.

But it happens often enough to suggest that we -- the fans -- are losing our way.

Imagine you are playing before several thousand on the...

By Myles Brand, NCAA President

What are you going to believe...myth or the facts?

Do you want to continue believing the popular myth, the false perception, the uninformed bias that student-athletes as a lot are dumb jocks? Or do you want to believe the data that say student-athletes are, on...

A musical opened on Broadway in 1927 called Good News.

These were the days before professional football, and the college game was as much the rage of 1920's America as flappers, speakeasies and Al Jolson performing in blackface.

The play was set on the campus of mythical Tait College,...

Surprisingly, the sky hasn't fallen.

I may even be disappointed it hasn't.

It's been two weeks now since the kickoff of the college football season and the kickoff of the college football fantasy season that for the first time is using real names of student-athletes. In the past, producers provided...

Let's be clear.

There is nothing wrong with paying athletes to play sports. Professional sports is big business in America. The athletes, as a labor force, are rightly paid what the market will bear. That's the professional model.

But it isn't the right approach for the collegiate model of...

"But it just isn't fair that student-athletes don't get paid to play sports. What about everyone else who is making money? What about the coaches making millions? Doesn't the student-athlete deserve something?"

This is the fairness argument for why student-athletes should be paid for playing sports as a part of...

"This is America! Of course student-athletes should be paid for playing sports. They are the ones who sweat out the wins and the losses. They are the ones who produce all the labor. Did you ever hear of capitalism, for crying out loud? The laborer should be paid for his...