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Greetings from the Scholarly Conference on College Sport, a four-day symposium in Chapel Hill hosted by the College Sport Research Institute at the University of North Carolina.

Whew. That's a mouthful, eh?

Lest you think this is just a bunch of eggheads talking about sports, today's first two panel discussions included some lively debate about topical issues.

One from the first session caught my attention. The panel discussion was about admissions policies and athletes, and the conversation drifted to Florida State and the recent academic scandal there.

Richard Lapchick, the director of the sport business program at Central Florida and a longtime watchdog of all things related to race, grades and the NCAA, pointed out that Florida State's men's basketball program had a 100 percent graduation rate. But that has been overshadowed in the Sunshine State by news that football coach Bobby Bowden might lose -- gasp! -- 14 wins because of an academic cheating scandal involving 61 athletes, 10 sports and two online courses.

"How did things get so out of control?" Lapchick wondered. "That's what we should be asking, but even the media isn't interested in that. The daily columnists are more concerned about those 14 games (Bowden) might lose and how far that will put him behind Joe Paterno."

-- JEFF MILLS, Staff Writer