This letter will be unpopular but, I propose the following: All athletic scholarships should be elminated. The current debate by the Black Coaches Association highlights the situation.

They claim a reduction in basketball scholarships will reduce the opportunities for aspiring students, particularly minorities, to obtain college funding. They argue that across all NCAA institutions, a reduction of some 300 scholarships will severely reduce spots for qualified applicants.

This is just not the case. What will happen of course is that there will be 300 fewer spots for applicants who want to play basketball, but the reduction in athletic scholarships does not have to have any direct connection to how many opportunities exist for qualified but financially needy applicants to attend college.

It is noble indeed for coaches to lament the lost educational oppportunities, the fact is that coaches are primarily concerned about their loss in recruiting ability.

The NCAA and educational institutions would be better off if all athletic scholarships would be eliminated. Clearly, of all the athletic scholarships awarded, many of those go to student athletes who do not need financial aid.

The real irony is the fact that awarding many athletic scholarships means many qualified but needy students will fail to obtain adequate funding for their college work. Replacing athletic scholarships should be a greatly expanded pool of financial aid to students needing assistance.

Many would argue that the elimination of athletic scholarships would destroy collegiate athletics -- I say hogwash. Varsity athletics could still function as it has and actively recruit student athletes for the academic programs and the opportunity to play varsity sports. As long as all NCAA schools were barred from offering athletic scholarships, I do not see why the distribution of talent would radically shift.

What could happen is that the cost of varsity sports could decrease since the cost of scholarships would not have to come from revenues generated in sporting events. What a miracle: Ticket prices would actually come down.

With the scandals associated with college athletics, most of them can be attributed to money matters and the ruthless recruiting that goes on to lure athlete X to go to institution Y. The elimination of all athletic scholarships would go a long way to eliminate this problem.

Let student athletes play varsity sports because they are good enough and want to, and let the financial aid be apportioned based on students' and parents' need.