Miami ? How do you stop the spiraling cost of college sports?

That was one of the topics the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletes addressed Monday in a meeting in Washington, where the commission met with NCAA president Myles Brand and the commissioners of the Atlantic Coast, Southeastern and Big Ten conferences and others to discuss the future of college sports.

The Knight Commission received reports on three new financial studies commissioned by the NCAA that examined the operating revenues and expenditures on athletics facilities.

Even without full costing of capital expenditures and staff compensation, the preliminary data showed that from 2001 to 2003, athletics spending grew at a rate four times faster than overall institutional spending.

Wake Forest president Thomas K. Hearn Jr., who was directing his first meeting as the new chair of the Knight Commission, said this rate could not be sustained.

“It’s clear that all those interested in the future of intercollegiate athletics must find a way to bridle escalating expenses,” Hearn said.

“As the Knight Commission indicated recently in opposing the addition of a 12th Division I-A football game, we cannot resolve our fiscal challenges by burdening athletes with an additional game to generate revenue. Policy decisions, such as spending allocations and the number of games in a season, must be based on what is best for the academic and physical well-being of our athletes.”