First, some news about Travis: He and his family will be attending the NASCAR event this Sunday in Atlanta as guests of Maine NASCAR driver Ricky Craven. Lee Roy used to be Craven's crew chief and Travis did everything an 11-year-old could do to help. Travis will be in the pit before the race, visiting with Craven and the other drivers, then watch the race from a suite overlooking the track. Craven has made Travis an honorary crew member of both of his racing teams and has put special designs on his cars for Travis. This really has nothing to do with college hockey, but it does involve the internet, student athletes and our favorite people, the suits in Kansas City who think that when a kid accepts a dime in scholarship money, he sells his soul to them for four years. In the current issue of Sports Illustrated, Alexander Wolff writes about Dan Kreft. Dan is a senior electrical engineering major at Northwestern. He has a sharp wit, a knack for writing and his own WWW page. He is, as he describes it, "the world's only 7-foot-tall, Division I-basketball-playing computer nerd." He has been putting updates on his page about the season, his thoughts and what he has been going through. He caught the attention of the folks at SI, who asked him to write an article for them. Sounds like a dream come true. Unfortunately for "Big Dan," he is also a scholarship athlete on Northwestern's basketball team. So, since being paid for the article would break NC$$ rules, he offered to do it for free. Who wouldn't want the chance to write for SI? The czars at the NC$$ still said no. According to Article 12.5.2.1, players cannot help a commercial entity sell a product, and SI would be "exploiting" Dan because he was an athlete. The NC$$ ignored the fact that the magazine wanted Dan because he could write, not because he played basketball. But, as Wolff says in his article, "The NCAA was resolute: It simply can't have athletes at its universities writing for national magazines. (Why, the very idea might disabuse the public of the notion that college jocks are illiterate.)" Wolff goes on to say, "while the NCAA effectively tells the people who play college sports to shut up, the airwaves are clogged with coaches' shows and with former coaches working as commentators. Woe unto us if we were deprived of their wisdom [ed note, Bobby Knight quote coming up, you might want to hide the children] 'We put his balls in a vise, I twisted it, we stuck a red-hot poker up his ass and poured water down his mouth, and I told him if he promised to play well we'd quit all that,' Indiana coach Bob Knight said on Feb. 14, when asked why Hossier center Todd Lindeman had played so well that night against Penn State. Knight can spew blather like that, and every repulsive syllable will be disseminated. Yet, if Kreft sent us a sonnet and we published it, he'd be drummed off his team." Wolff continues, talking about the million dollar shoe contracts coaches sign, the $60 jerseys for sale in sporting goods stores and other endorsement money coaches, schools and the NC$$ rake in each year. He also raises the issue of the First Amendment. Personally, I'd like to know since when Constitutional rights were declared null and void when you accept a scholarship. I've typed up scholarship forms before, and I don't recall anything in there about losing your freedom of speech or expression, even in the fine print. Luckily, the NC$$ can do nothing about Big Dan's web site, so you can still read his work. His address is www.eecs.nwu.edu/~bigdan/ You can also send an email to Sam Smith. He is the president of Washington State, and chair of the Presidents Commission. His email address is [log in to unmask] When you mail him, be sure to explain why it is we call his organization NC$$. *** Quoted material from SI article, *** *** March 4, 1996 by Alexander Wolff *** John Forsyth Line of the week, Ace Millett, NYA goalie: Min Shots Saves Goals G.A.A. 00:08 1 0 1 337.50 HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.