Rise Of The Athletic Empires At Schools Such As Penn State, Corporate Sponsors And Boosters Fund An Athletic Juggernaut.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — When Penn State's football team took the field against Toledo last weekend, it was a scene steeped in American sporting lore.

The players wore plain blue-and-white uniforms, a nod to their straitlaced coach, Joe Paterno. Beaver Stadium swelled with loyal fans, many of whom had traveled hundreds of miles to take in the game. And in the distance, towering above the south end zone, rose Mount Nittany, hinting of cool autumn evenings and turning leaves.

But look carefully behind that simple, almost pastoral scene and another picture emerges - one colored by the relentless pursuit of money that defines big-time college sports today.

Those uniforms include a Nike swoosh, advertising for which the Beaverton, Ore., company paid dearly. Most of the fans are not students but boosters and alumni wealthy enough to shell out thousands of dollars to acquire season tickets. And those lovely hills? Next season, they will be blotted out by a 28,000-square-foot lounge, 58 luxury skyboxes, and a commercial-laden replay screen - part of a $94 million expansion that will increase Beaver Stadium's capacity to nearly 105,000.

Down on the field, Rashard Casey isn't just a student-athlete. He's an endowed quarterback, whose scholarship is underwritten by a $250,000 contribution from Kerry Collins, a former Penn State quarterback - the same way a donor would endow a professor's chair in the humanities. It is one of 16 endowed positions on the team, from middle linebacker to tight end to tailback.

Seventy years ago, the Carnegie Foundation warned that commercialism threatened to cast "the darkest blot upon American college sport." That prophecy has come to pass - and then some.

At Penn State and scores of other large universities, sports is a multibillion-dollar business fed by corporate sponsorships, television and cable deals, booster payments and advertising.

Games have become marketing tools to promote the college brand and gain national acclaim. Entertaining alumni and boosters has become more important than encouraging enjoyment and participation among students and athletes - the original idea behind college sports.