Black athletes at Penn State University will follow filmmaker Spike Lee's suggestion and start using their status as moneymakers to give minorities more clout on campuses, a player said yesterday.

But Shelly Hammonds, a defensive back, said they will stop short of boycotting games.

During a speech to Penn State students Monday night, Lee suggested black college athletes could threaten not to play to lobby for increased enrollment and better minority facilities.

"You have to hit them in the pocketbook," Lee said. "If black football players said, 'We're not playing unless we get what we want,' it could work.

"It has to come down to economics, that's the only way," Lee said.

Hammonds said Lee's remarks encouraged him and other teammates to form a black athletic association for area colleges.

Lee offered to connect the players to University of North Carolina athletes who formed a similar group, Hammonds said.

"There's no revolt going on around here," Hammonds said. "(Lee)'s just saying if things are going to get done, we'll have to be the ones that put offers on the table."

Hammonds said the University should work harder to boost black enrollment. Only 2,266 of 70,576 students on Penn State's 22 campuses are black. The number is down 12 percent from five years ago, when protesters took over a campus building and demanded the administration accelerate efforts to attract black students.

"We're the people that can start it, but it's going to take everybody," Hammonds said. "If we expect the black community to back us, then we have to back them."

Five Penn State football players presented Lee with a Penn State cap and T-shirt at a ceremony Monday. When Lee asked them about conditions on campus, they said the situation was improving.

Lee then questioned them about a boycott and defensive back Lee Rubin said, "We're listening."

James Stewart, a vice provost who monitors minority affairs, agreed black athletes have the power and popularity to make a statement on campuses.

A boycott "certainly would make a major statement that would be addressed," Stewart said.

But he said such a move would jeopardize the status of many black athletes on scholarships. He also said athletes have more advantages and support than the average black college student.

"If there are specific concerns that black athletes have, many concerns are likely to focus around their athletic role, as opposed to being identical to African-American students' concerns," Stewart said.

Terrell Jones, deputy vice provost, said the move was "wonderful" and will not pose any problems.

"People taking control of their own destinies makes perfect sense," Jones said, adding that administrators he talked to supported the move.

Jones, who said he is impressed by the student athletes, pledged his support to the group, saying that if asked, he would do anything he could to help.

Collegian Staff Writer John Lincoski contributed to this report.