The NCAA charges of shady activities in the athletic department of the University of Illinois suggest that a serious re-evaluation of its football and basketball programs is long overdue. Your correspondent, Linda Young, reminds us that the corruption set in about 1966 with Pete Elliott and company.
If the ”death penalty” is applied by the NCAA to the University of Illinois, it may be a blessing in disguise. It could force the administration and alumni to decide upon what to build and maintain the university`s reputation. Fewer and fewer outstanding universities in the U.S. and none in the rest of the world sell their souls in the attempt to maintain the fiction that big-time collegiate athletics can be a program for amateurs. If second-and third-ranked universities decide to make the training of professional football and basketball players a part of their academic program, it may do less harm.
