I certainly agree with Joe Nocera that basketball and football players are treated like chattel in the present system. Denying players a basic stipend when coaches are making ridiculous amounts is the height of inequity. But paying football and men's basketball players isn't feasible, given Title IX regulations and politics. If you disconnect moneymaking sports, women's sports will very likely lose financing. Paying basketball and football players will not address the core problem of an unsustainable arms race in college sports. The proposition that the N.C.A.A. is in charge and can control college sports is a canard. If the N.C.A.A. pushes too hard, top conferences could create their own basketball playoff and challenge the N.C.A.A. tournament, which is currently a huge windfall for the N.C.A.A. Then the decentralization of power that began with the Supreme Court decision will only get worse. Your proposal offers an important contribution to the debate by arguing for stipends to players, the right to counsel and a defined scholarship term and the opportunity for lifetime health insurance. But getting there isn't going to be easy. C. THOMAS MCMILLEN, former college and professional basketball player and former member of Congress, Ellicott City, Md. Like Joe Nocera, I am concerned about the professionalization of college sports, but his solution - to pay student athletes - would make matters far worse. The real problem is the "arms race" between universities, where football and basketball coaches are sometimes paid millions of dollars morethan presidents and outstanding faculty who may be doing cutting-edge research on cancer or in other fields vital to human welfare. There is nothing wrong with college sports programs that are kept on an amateur level, but unless the N.C.A.A. creates salary limits for coaches, commensurate with their university mission, professionalization will continue, and the very nature of our universities will remain in question. MICHAEL AARON ROCKLAND, Professor of American Studies, Rutgers University, Morristown, N.J. Here is a suggested Item 6 to your well-reasoned plan: Create an athletic-performance major. At most comprehensive universities, students can receive a degree in dance performance, piano performance, etc. Make it the same as the art-performance programs, which are fairly rigorous. This would enable the university use the phrase "student athlete" with a straight face. JOE BULL, Columbus, Ohio I read your superb article on the N.C.A.A., and you hit the nail directly on the head. DALE BROWN, Head Basketball Coach, L.S.U., 1972-97