A lot of people protested this week about the women's basketball team going to Florida. The Lady Lions had worked hard all year long to make it to the NCAA basketball tournament and then the administration yanked Rec Hall out from under them.

The decision to schedule the men's team to perform in Rec Hall was not a sexist decision on Penn State's part. It was a reflection on both society and college athletics.

Society is sexist in its sports preferences. The administration gave Rec Hall to the men because more people watch men's basketball on television and more people pay to watch men's games.

The potential for earning extra home games and television revenue made it more desirable to hold the men's game at Rec Hall. It was purely an economic decision.

Today college athletics are about money. Because Penn State supports 28 men's and women's sports, it needs to maximize revenue.

There's nothing wrong with college athletics making money, just as long as the people involved don't lose sight of what the games are all about.

In most college sports coaches are hired to win -- whatever it takes. Education takes a back seat to performance in the athletic arena.

When coaches are hired to "just win, baby," they are more likely to cut corners and act unethically to win. Many players are told, first and foremost, to perform on the playing field. Academics become a secondary concern.

During the latest scandal involving the North Carolina State basketball team, Coach Jim Valvano repeated time and time again that his players were old enough to take responsibility for their own decisions. After all, Charles Shackleford knew point shaving was illegal. He knew taking money from an alumnus was against NCAA rules.

Maybe it was a question of greed, but who can blame him? He went to N.C. State from a poor background and suddenly someone's flashing $65,000 in front of him.

Everywhere he looks he sees people making money on his athletic talent. The school makes money, the coach makes money and the television networks make money.

What kind of example does Shackleford have when programs like Notre Dame's, which is supposed to be clean and virtuous, bolted from the College Football Association television package for more money?

Everyone is allowed to make money and chase opportunities except for the athletes. They are told to stay in school for four years, perform well and then, maybe, they'll be able to turn professional.

To athletes, the system is built on their exploitation. The school is basically getting a free good -- their athletic skills.

However if athletes needs some spending money where do they go? All too often they turn to alumni or to an agent.

What the NCAA needs to do is to provide a stipend of perhaps $100 a month so athletes have some money in their pockets. Money to go out and get a pizza with their friends, or to do their laundry.

A recent NCAA study revealed that athletes spend an average of 30 hours per week on their sports. In return the athletes receive tuition, books and room and board.

The NCAA forbids athletes to work during the school year. Even during the summer most athletes have to take classes to make up for ones time constraints prevented them from taking during the year. With class and workouts in the summer, they have little time to earn money for the school year.

When it comes to money, the schools have it and the athletes don't. As long as a demand exists for college athletics at the ticket booth and on television, people will cut corners to win and make money.

But programs that take shortcuts to win compromise athletes' education and squander opportunities.

College athletics create possibilities that we sometimes lose sight of when we emphasize a won-lost record rather than a graduation rate. Athletes that otherwise wouldn't be in school now have a chance to grow up and earn their degree. Their education makes them an asset to society rather that a drain.

Coaches have a chance to influence their athletes. If helping an athlete means sitting him or her on the bench and perhaps losing one or two more games a year, then that coach has done the right thing. The athlete will learn from the experience.

Bob White was a defensive lineman for the 1986 national championship team at Penn State. He came here from a high school in Florida where he spent half the year picking oranges instead of staying in school.

If it weren't for college athletics he would not have a college degree and would not be working in the University's admissions office now. College athletics gave him the opportunity to get his education and now he helps others get into Penn State.

Despite the corruption and big money involved in college athletics, many programs can produce similar results. It's results like those that make big-time college athletics worthwhile.