It is good to learn that Kansas University Chancellor Robert Hemenway has been named to a special NCAA presidential task force to study the future of college sports.

Peter Likins, president of Arizona State University is chairman of the task force and the Fiscal Responsibility Subcommittee, whose members will include Hemenway.

The KU chancellor should be able to offer first-hand advice and information concerning the “fiscal responsibility” question in light of his emphasis and approval of a substantial increase in KU’s athletic department budget. He hired KU Athletic Director Lew Perkins at a salary near the top – if not THE top – of all university ADs with the admonition to increase KU’s athletic budget. Perkins has been highly successful in following Hemenway’s wishes, producing significant jumps in revenue through a number of actions – some popular, some not.

Now, Hemenway will be part of a task force to try to figure out some way to get a handle on the arms race in intercollegiate athletics. It is hoped this group will be far more effective than many previous NCAA-led efforts in which college presidents and chancellors called for and endorsed many positive, strong-sounding goals that lacked any teeth or muscle.

It is understood that Hemenway and NCAA President Myles Brand have a special and close friendship. Hemenway was very supportive of the former Indiana University president when several individuals were being considered for the NCAA job. Evidence of this close relationship is Brand’s appointment of Hemenway to a three-year term as chairman of the NCAA Division-I Board of Directors and the fact Hemenway is the only Big 12 representative on the just-appointed subcommittee on fiscal responsibility.

Regardless, something needs to be done on the runaway spending within the intercollegiate sports fraternity. Perhaps Hemenway’s presence on the task force will provide the necessary first-hand experience and supportive information to shock other members into calling for – demanding – meaningful corrective action.

Hemenway knows what money can do for a sports program. Look at the Big 12 Conference, with Texas leading the way. Facilities and budgets at Austin give the university a tremendous advantage in recruiting top high school athletes.

Given this situation, and the importance placed on winning, Hemenway faced the alternative of the KU athletic program remaining in the lower half, near the bottom, of the conference in revenues or launching an all-out effort to raise more money and elevate the number of winning/championship intercollegiate programs at KU. The only trouble is that other schools are doing the same thing, and it takes a very significant jump in revenues to improve a school’s position on the revenue ladder.

Only time will tell whether more money corresponds with championships. And what is the price paid by a school if and when the emphasis on athletics detracts from the primary mission of a university?

Maybe the Fiscal Responsibility Subcommittee will be the beginning of something good or at least something more effective than so many previous NCAA president- and chancellor-led committees.

The subcommittees appointed by Brand will deal with “Presidential Leadership of Internal and External Constituencies,” “Implications of Academic Values and Standards” and “Student-Athlete Well-being.”

By the way, Jim Moeser, a former KU fine arts dean and current chancellor of the University of North Carolina, also is a member of the Fiscal Responsibility Subcommittee.

Task force members were scheduled to hold their first meetings Thursday and Friday in Tucson. The press release telling about Brand and the formation of the task force and subcommittees said the meeting in Tucson was to develop a list of what members think are the most pressing problems facing intercollegiate athletics.

This is not too reassuring. It seems reasonable to believe these college presidents and chancellors should already know what the problems are. The big question is will they have the guts to do something about the abuses or will there just be more talk?

Where are the ones who can make a difference, a difference for the better? It’s in the hands of the college leaders. They are the ones who hire the ADs and approve coaches’ salaries and other expenditures for their schools’ athletic programs. Can they police their own schools, the schools within their respective conferences and tell their sports-obsessed alumni and friends there is going to be an end to the growing danger of sports overshadowing the primary mission of a university?

Good luck!