While Division I college athletes bring in the bucks for their colleges, many of them are actually forced to live near or below the poverty level. Once an athlete's eligibility is used up, he's put out to pasture. If he makes the mistake of accepting a suit or a free dinner, the NCAA can swoop down and destroy him.

In the case of Penn State, 14 years of Joe Paterno's victories were simply erased without so much as a how-do-you-do. And scholarships were taken away from deserving high school students who know nothing about the Sandusky scandal.

So it's about time that the NCAA itself be held accountable. Penn State fan Charlie Dent and Ohio State fan Joyce Beatty are from different parties and are doubtless bitter rivals whenever those teams clash. But they have united in proposing legislation that will soften the association's draconion sanctions by mandating administrative hearings with a right of appeal.

"Too often, I open the paper and I read a new story about how the NCAA has mismanaged its investigations," Dent said at an Aug. 1 news conference. He points out that the ones who suffer most are "are our nation's young student athletes." Dent thinks those young minds and bodies are what NCAA should protect.

The NCAA Act will require annual baseline concussion testing in certain contact sports. Four-year scholarships will no longer be revoked if a student is injured or loses his athletic prowess. Before sanctions are imposed, against either a college or student, there will be at least one administrative hearing and a right to appeal.

"This bill will ensure that students - the individuals the NCAA is charged to protect - will, once again, come first in collegiate athletics," said Congresswoman Beatty.