‘Sports for Sale’ a Timely Look at College Athletics : Television: Bill Moyers examines big-money games on campus. What comes through is that collegiate athletics and studies appear to be flat-out incompatible.

Ken Burns, creator of that stunning documentary series “The Civil War,” is now researching another marathon program on the role of baseball in U.S. culture--its hardballs, curveballs and spitballs.

For PBS.

Bill Moyers, TV’s journalist for all seasons, has put together a three-hour package on the warts of college athletics called “Sports for Sale.”

For PBS.

That the venue for such critical-minded programs about sports should be public TV and not ABC, CBS, NBC or ESPN is not necessarily accidental. Unlike those networks, PBS has no contracts to televise athletic events, and thus no vested interest in maintaining the nation’s sports status quo.

The Moyers special (at 9 tonight on Channels 28 and 15) has three components: an excellent 90-minute documentary directed by Howard Weinberg, followed by a 30-minute panel discussion and then an hour of viewer call-ins. (Only the first two parts will be seen when the program airs Wednesday at noon on Channel 15 and at 8 p.m. on Channel 50.)

“Sports for Sale” could not be more timely, arriving amid the NCAA basketball tournament--with its huge paydays for college sports and CBS--and just following a recent public-opinion poll indicating that Americans overwhelmingly believe intercollegiate athletics are out of control.

The poll was commissioned by the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, which today is scheduled to release its plan for reforming college sports. Whether any of its advice will be followed remains to be seen.

The perception persists that TV is the corrupting, cash-bearing bag man that has perverted college sports by spreading lucrative rights fees among those schools with the most successful athletic programs. Notre Dame has even cut its own national TV deal.

The formula is simple: Winning on the field equals TV exposure equals winning at the bank. Hence the enormous temptation to lure and sustain top athletes by giving them cash under the table or an academic free ride, or both, all in violation of NCAA rules.

“Sports for Sale” provides historical context (noting that people once accused radio of being the great sports corrupter, for example) while acknowledging that the pervasiveness of TV has indeed raised the stakes.

The argument for reform gets a big, bold exclamation point here, as Moyers visits Southern Methodist University, the Dallas school whose scandal-scarred football program is only now recovering from the severest NCAA penalties.

He visits Iowa’s Middle America, where the absence of professional sports franchises has turned college basketball and football into a virtual state religion whose many zealots resist raising admission standards for athletes.

And Moyers visits the University of Louisville, whose hugely successful basketball coach, Denny Crum, is under fire for his players’ relatively low graduation rate and whose recent top recruits are ineligible to play under an NCAA requirement that freshmen athletes have a 2.0 grade point average and a combined 700 score on the SAT or at least 15 on the ACT.

There exists in some circles a belief that athletes are being exploited by colleges without receiving much in return, specifically an education. At a Nike basketball camp for top high school prospects, for example, filmmaker Spike Lee tonight advises young athletes to examine graduation rates in addition to potential TV exposure when picking a college. “I don’t wanna name names,” Lee says, “but there are a lot of coaches whose players never graduate.”

Yes . . . but if the purpose is to enlighten these kids, why not name names?

On the other hand, the Moyers program’s emphasis on athletes earning degrees may be misplaced, for the diploma itself--the parchment with fancy writing--is the least valuable part of a college education. It may open a door to a job, but without the wisdom and skills to back up the degree, the graduating athlete won’t be able to hold the job.

The degree itself can be a sham.

What comes through on “Sports for Sale” is that the term “student athlete” is an oxymoron, for collegiate athletics and studies appear to be flat-out incompatible. Just think about it: In theory, a kid is asked to take a full academic load while spending up to eight hours a day in an athletic activity unrelated to the classroom. Add to this the possibility that this so-called student-athlete may be unmotivated or academically deficient and you have the on-court whiz becoming an in-classroom flop.

Anyone who has ever worked full time while attending school will tell you what a struggle it is. As an SMU football player says tonight: “It’s really hard to study because you put in such a long day.”

Something else this player says also makes sense. “Why shouldn’t we get paid?” he asks. “Give us minimum wage. What’s wrong with that?”

Indeed. If anything, “Sports for Sale” makes a compelling case, by implication, for a redefinition of so-called amateur college athletes. Drop the disguises. These people are professional entertainers, as much so as Madonna, M. C. Hammer, Johnny Carson and Bill Cosby--the only difference being that the money they bring in goes to others instead of themselves.

The evidence is on those CBS telecasts of the NCAA basketball tournament, as gifted athletes perform on a TV network that hopes to profit from their talents and is paying the NCAA a reported $1 billion over seven years for the right to do so. So the network and colleges get rich.

Yet the athletes themselves, except for the few pennies some of them may be paid under the table, are virtually uncompensated for their services.

These citizens are valuable contributors to society. They provide us all--students and non-student TV viewers--great pleasure.

So why insist that college athletes enroll as college students? Instead, drop the pretense of education and treat them as mercenaries. Make them university employees, signing them to four-year contracts for salaries based on their abilities.

Now if any of them want to attend class during this period and work toward a degree, that would be a wonderful bonus. They would receive the same tuition benefits available to other employees of the school while also being required to meet the academic standards required of other freshmen.

Moyers says tonight that colleges fear that paying their athletes would cost them their tax-exempt status. But that’s something that lawyers can work out. Remember, a nation’s entertainment is at stake here, and a TV picture of a soaring dunk is worth a thousand words of Shakespeare.