At its convention earlier this month, the National Collegiate Athletic Association delayed, for at least a year, action on a proposal that would give so-called student-athletes some, but not much, time off. The proposals were modest, including a break for two weeks after the end of a season, a day off every week and an eight-hour overnight break.

The delay calls into question how much commitment, if any, the NCAA has to participation by student-athletes in anything but athletics. Although it is not breaking news that student-athletes are more athletes than students at many of the big state football and basketball schools-schools which played a big part in this delay-the confirmation of that imbalance earlier this month indicates that the NCAA is going in exactly the wrong direction, 180 degrees from the original concept of amateurism.