COMMENTARY : GAME IS FOR MONEY CAMBY FOLLOWS NCAA SYSTEM.

Byline: Jim Donaldson Providence Journal-Bulletin

Don't blame Marcus Camby for being on the take.

Everybody involved in college sports is, too - from the conference commissioners to the university presidents to the directors of athletics to the coaches to the alumni to the fans.

They all want to win. They all want the glory. They all want the money. And they're willing to sell out to do it.

Not that Camby and his Hartford homeboys are blameless for accepting money and gifts from - the adjective of popular choice seems to be ``unscrupulous'' - agents.

But the fact is that most university presidents, coaches, alumni and fans have no more scruples than Wesley Spears or John Lounsbury.

Spears is the controversial Hartford lawyer who, according to a story in the Hartford Courant earlier this week, gave Camby an expensive, diamond-studded pendant bearing his jersey number - 21. Lounsbury is an agent who, Camby was quoted in the Courant as saying, gave him ``a couple of thousand'' dollars.

This revelation has prompted all sorts of outcries.

Cries against - another oft-used adjective has been ``scumbag'' - agents who purportedly prey on vulnerable, innocent, young athletes who grew up in poverty.

Cries against The System that allows schools to make millions in television, gate, and merchandise revenue; The System that allows coaches to make hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary, sneaker contracts and summer camps, not to mention bonuses for winning games in the NCAA tournament, while the young men who make it all possible aren't allowed to earn any outside income.

Cries against the petty, restrictive, unrealistic rules of the NCAA.

For crying out loud, give me a break.

The problem really isn't that complicated. Colleges could take care of it quite simply, if they wanted to. But they don't want to.

The Camby case is the newest version of the same old story, another sorry example of the shamateurism that pervades big-time intercollegiate athletics in the '90s.

Admissions standards are ignored in order to admit athletes who are grossly unprepared to do college work. Then, unable to take a normal course load, these athletes are placed in carefully selected classes, often remedial, in order to keep them eligible. The most hypocritical schools will pass their athletes through enough of these joke classes to ``earn'' a meaningless degree, and then congratulate themselves on their terrific graduation rate.

And why? Why, to win games, of course.

Winning gets you national recognition. Winning brings in revenue. Winning increases alumni donations.

Look what winning basketball games has done for UMass - long overlooked, and often looked down upon, in a state overloaded with outstanding schools.

Regarded for years as being on the lower rungs among local institutions of higher learning, UMass was looked upon in a different light once it rose to the top of the collegiate basketball polls.

Suddenly, instead of dumping on UMass, people were cheering for the Minutemen. Instead of laughing at UMass, people were lauding the Minutemen. Basketball success brought UMass prestige and respect it previously had lacked.

That's the way it works in intercollegiate athletics. Or don't you think they're delighted in Nebraska to be national football champions, even if the Cornhuskers did it with players like Christian Peter and Lawrence Phillips? That national title will be remembered long after Peter and Phillips are forgotten.

Everybody's happy at UMass. Certainly, Camby and his coach, John Calipari, are laughing all the way to the bank.

Camby is on the verge of signing a multiyear, multimillion-dollar NBA deal.

He got what he wanted out of college - a lucrative contract. He wasn't interested in earning a degree, but in earning big money in the NBA.

Calipari, whose virtual lifetime contract with UMass brings him about $800,000 annually, just turned down a seven-figure offer to coach the Philadelphia 76ers. Then he accepted one, reportedly for $15 million over three years, to coach the New Jersey Nets.

Calipari is considered to be such a genius, such an inspirational leader, such a great motivator, that the Rhode Island Department of Employment and Training last week paid him $15,000 to speak at their ``Compete For The Future'' Business Seminar Series.

He ought to give a cut to Camby.

There's no question that Calipari's an expert on what it takes to Compete For The Foreseeable Future In Intercollegiate Athletics.

Because things aren't going to change. And that's because no one involved really wants them to.

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Photo: CAMBY