by Jason Whitlock

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Earlier this week, I wrote this scathing column touching on my disdain for the hypocritical, immoral and outdated NCAA rulebook. Readers e-mailed me mostly in support of the column but also complaining that I offered no solution.

OK, one of the flaws of my column-writing style is that it's impossible to just parachute into one column and come close to understanding my total perspective. Occasional (and unsophisticated) readers of my column reach many inaccurate conclusions. It amazes me the seemingly equal number of readers who are convinced that an unchecked anti-white or anti-black bias drives the content of my column.

I do not respond to these black and white critics because I hope that over time they'll realize I confess my biases and flaws in writing, choose my targets based on their stupidity and/or willingness to be unfair and then let the readers decide how seriously to take my opinion.

This column aspires to be an ongoing conversation about the real issues influencing what transpires in the sports world. On its best days, the column is a fluid search for the truth. Other days, the column is written primarily to entertain.

I don't mind being wrong. It's a hazard of being a swing-for-the-fences risk-taker. And it's an opportunity to dig deeper.

Some of you remember the column I wrote months ago about the need for the NCAA to take the money it generates from football and men's basketball and invest some of that money in academies for talented, high school football and basketball players.

Television and its money have dramatically changed the games for everyone involved in college football and basketball. John Calipari just received a $31 million contract from Kentucky. The players he recruits will arrive on campus hoping to one day cash in on NBA millions.

Because of NBA one-and-done rules and a host of other factors (financial, dysfunctional families, lying coaches), the teenage players desperately need informed advisors. A four- or five-star basketball recruit isn't much different from one of the three finalists on "American Idol" and the universities that recruit them are no different from the record labels that tried to sign Jennifer Hudson or David Cook.

Hudson and Cook would be fools to sign deals with a label without consulting with a professional agent. It's even more necessary for a big-time basketball recruit. When John Calipari walks out on a Memphis contract to accept a fatter Kentucky contract, that could have potentially devastating impact on an 18-year-old kid's professional future.

We know this. The people running the NCAA know this. Rather than adjust to this reality, the NCAA continues to publish a rulebook that forbids young human beings from doing what is irrefutably in their best interest.

That's what I didn't like about the Jim Calhoun-UConn-impermissible contact story that circulated Sweet Sixteen weekend. I despise the NCAA and its rulebook.

But I went too far. I unfairly blasted the writers of the Yahoo! Sports story. I'm friends with Dan Wetzel, one of the top sports journalists/columnists working today. Dan wrote me an appropriately angry e-mail objecting to my characterization of the intent and content of the Yahoo! Sports story.

In his e-mail, Wetzel clearly articulated the big-picture point of the series of agent stories he and Adrian Wojnarowski are publishing for Yahoo! Sports. I read and reacted to the Calhoun story, the one sensationalized and boiled down to its lowest-common denominator (NCAA recruiting violations) by ESPN. I did not read or even see the story about UCLA's Kevin Love, a wealthy AAU coach and Duke's Jay Williams.

Wetzel is actually singing my song!

"We do it to show that the problem is everywhere," he wrote me. "That no one is immune. That the NCAA is doing nothing, and that the media are lazy by characterizing it any other way ...

"Despite clearly trying to break all stereotypes of lazy media (the subject you rail about), you compare me to a newspaper showing pictures of runaway slaves. Seriously?"

Wetzel also pointed out that I was lazy and unprofessional for not calling him and discussing the series before popping off a column.

In this new era of personal responsibility, I have no choice but to enter a plea of guilty.

I screwed up in an indefensible manner. I let my hatred of the NCAA and its rulebook severely cloud my judgment. I've known and liked Wetzel and his work for years. It was stupid for me not to call him and debate this issue. I could've saved myself a lot of embarrassment.

All right, I'm done flogging myself. Mistakes happen.

You see how easy it is to cop to an obvious error?

That's all I want the people running the NCAA to do. Everyone seriously (and not so seriously) involved in college athletics realizes NCAA rules no longer make any sense.

We all know that a significant number of basketball and football recruits arrive on campus unprepared to take advantage of the currency (education) the schools/NCAA offer in exchange for their athletic participation.

The NCAA needs to take responsibility for the college preparation of the kids who fuel CBS's billion-dollar contract. That's why I believe in NCAA/NBA/NFL-financed academies for elite prep athletes. If the NCAA has a sincere interest in the academic evolution of its athletes and a decrease in recruiting corruption, then the NCAA needs to provide academic and professional counseling services to the athletes long before they reach college campuses.

The athletes and their families can't fend for themselves. They're too young, naïve, valuable and, in many cases, vulnerable to be left un-chaperoned.

I'd like to see the sports media push for a total overhaul of the NCAA rulebook. It's a more important battle than fighting for a football playoff system. Sounds like Wetzel is down for the fight as long as idiots don't kill him with friendly fire.

You can e-mail Jason Whitlock at ballstate0@aol.com