NCAA Defends Tax-Exempt Status as Congressional Scrutiny of Colleges Increases
By Brad Wolverton, The Chronicle of Higher Education

The National Collegiate Athletic Association, in a bid to justify its federal tax exemption, said this week that although big-time college-sports expenses continued to rise rapidly, athletics programs still had a largely educational mission.

In a 25-page letter to Rep. Bill Thomas, the California Republican who is chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means, Myles Brand, the NCAA’s president, said institutions in the association’s top two divisions provided $1.5-billion a year in athletics scholarships, much of which goes to low-income students who would otherwise not be able to attend college.

Mr. Brand’s letter came in response to a sharply worded letter that Mr. Thomas sent the association last month, much of which centered around spending by big-time football and men's basketball programs and whether increasing commercial interests in those sports have led them to stray from their educational purpose (The Chronicle, October 5).

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