BOB ABERNETHY: College sports is awash in money -- some say, too much money. College sports powerhouses make millions in profits, often with the help of fat television contracts. But they also spend millions -- much of it on scholarships and salaries -- big-time coaches often are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Now, a group of faculty members from several colleges has begun to organize, to protest the abuses they say are fostered by so much money and such intense competition: too many athletic scholarships, bending academic rules to keep players eligible, and graduating students who haven't been educated. Robert Lipsyte reports.

ROBERT LIPSYTE: Look at those passionate faces ... it's not hard to believe that games are building college spirit and reaching out to the community beyond the campus, not to mention bringing [in] the college box office and television revenues, alumni donations, and giving minority athletes a chance for an education they might not otherwise afford. But there is an underside to the spectacle: riots after the games, coaches out of control, rampant commercialism. A long dormant ethical debate has resurfaced. Faculty members rarely heard on the issue in recent years -- their thesis is that big-time college sports is a distraction from the academic mission of the university.

JON ERICSON (Founder, The Drake Group): I'm saying -- I want my classroom back.

LIPSYTE: Jon Ericson, a retired professor at Drake University in Iowa is founder of a new group that wants to reduce the influence of athletic departments on higher education. The Drake Group, as they call themselves, recently met in Colorado Springs. One common complaint was that many athletes, often poorly prepared by their high schools, cannot keep up with classwork during their playing seasons.

ERICSON: You can't do it when you're exhausted and you can't do it when you're missing classes. That's the big lie in college athletics. There's no magic that can provide a real education if you haven't acquired the skills. The very student, who should be in school every single day because his academic skills are lesser, is the very student we excuse from 7 or 8 classes.

LIPSYTE: Among the groups goals: shorter seasons, full disclosure of grades and graduation rates, and the end to athletic scholarships. That would also mean the end of big-time college sports.

MURRAY SPERBER (Indiana University professor): Many people in the public and media have become upset because it does raise ethical issues. This is supposed to be higher education, this is not supposed to be commercial entertainment.

LIPSYTE: Murray Sperber, an English professor at Indiana University, has written a book entitled BEER AND CIRCUS, which is also his description of college sports. When one target of his criticism, Indiana coach Bobby Knight was fired several months ago, fans harassed Sperber. The administration thought he should take a leave.

SPERBER: I was threatened and it was made impossible for me to teach this fall. Hardcore fan Web sites, people who worship Knight, had me on their "enemies" list with many vilifying postings. They discovered how to find me through the Indiana schedule of classes as posted on the Web.

LIPSYTE: Professor of Rhetoric Linda Bensel-Meyers of the University of Tennessee, became a target after she revealed that athletes were turning in plagiarized papers. She felt the athletes were being exploited.

LINDA BENSEL-MEYERS (University of Tennessee): Athletes become capital [that] the University uses for profit. Anyone who works for that institution has to accept responsibility for what the institution does. You have to believe there are ideals that we may not be able to realize as humans in this world, but if we don't try to live towards them then we're not going to have any reason for being here.

LIPSYTE: Elaine Staurowsky who teaches sports sciences at Ithaca University is a former coach and athletic director. She thinks the faculty needs to do more.

ELAINE STAUROWSKY (Ithaca College): They do have an ethical responsibility. It's built right into the professional code of ethics, right in the document that's distributed by the American Association of University Professors. Faculty members are expected to speak and search for the truth.