According to this Chronicle story, the NCAA filed a legal brief Monday in support of the NFL’s appeal to keep former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett out of this year’s NFL draft. Previous posts on this lawsuit can be reviewed here.
NCAA President Myles Brand commmented that the NCAA is supporting the NFL not because of its economic interests (umm?), but rather because eliminating the rule would lead more college athletes to make poor decisions:

“If not reversed, this decision is likely to unrealistically raise expectations and hopes that a professional football career awaits graduation from high school and that education can therefore be abandoned,” Brand said. “The result could be a growing group of young men who end up with neither a professional football career nor an education that will support their life plans.”

This is an extremely disappointing position coming from Dr. Brand, who was supposed to bring some academic integrity to the NCAA. In short, Dr. Brand is taking the position that the NFL and NCAA should be allowed to engage in violations of anti-trust law to prevent a few young football players from making a bad decision (i.e., to opt for the NFL before they are ready over a subsidized college education).
Note to Dr. Brand — in America, people are generally free to make bad decisions. Rather than taking this dubious position, the NCAA should be working with the NFL to establish a true minor football league to accomodate the hundreds of football players who really have no desire or business being in college while preparing to take a stab at professional football. That system has worked well for years in baseball, and college baseball has flourished in the Sun Belt over the past decade as a result. Until NCAA football quits being a glorified minor league for the NFL, the college football scandals that arise annually will continue to undermine the integrity of intercollegiate athletics.