‘Cleaning Up Sports System’

In response to your editorial suggesting that some university athletes are semiprofessionals who deserve not only scholarships but stipends as well, I concur wholeheartedly. Division I football and basketball are big business generating millions of dollars in revenue, and player participants are not receiving their fair share. A minimum annual salary of $15,000 seems a reasonable starting figure for football and basketball players in the Pac 10, for example.

We ended “shamatuerism” in pro-am tennis over a decade ago, and now is an opportune time to apply the same principles to profitable college sports. The way to end scandals involving the recruitment of star players is simply to allow universities to spend whatever sums are deemed financially recoverable on recruiting activities; then legalize the signing of college players to four-year non-renewable contracts for whatever salaries these semi-professionals and their agents can command--leaving the imposition of scholastic performance standards, high or low, to each school’s individual determination. Let’s end the gross exploitation of athletes at schools with big-time sports programs by granting them a more equitable share of attendance and television revenues.

EDWIN J. PERKINS

Los Angeles