This entry is written by Michelle Brutlag Hosick, the Associate Director of The NCAA News.

The amateurism of the student-athlete is a core principle of the NCAA, a fact NCAA President Myles Brand recently illustrated with his essays on the topic, posted here on the Double-A Zone and on The Huffington Post (8/7/08 article, 8/12/08 article, 8/21/08 article). That principle is important, but difficult, to keep sacred in today's "real world" of high coach salaries, luxury suites and television contracts.

In Division I, the job of upholding the value of amateurism is assigned to a group of 23 people serving on the Amateurism Cabinet. That cabinet, with representatives from all three Division I subdivisions (Football Championship, Football Bowl and Division I), met for the first time last week in Indianapolis, and I had the opportunity to attend. The impression that I came away with was clear: Their task isn't easy.

It's complicated by a number of factors, including the current regulations governing the use of student-athletes' images and likenesses that are woefully outdated and an increase in international prospective student-athletes from countries that view athletics participation completely differently than we do in the United States.

In the coming months and years, the cabinet will be studying issues like what triggers professionalism for a prospect, the involvement of agents and advisors in intercollegiate athletics, and how to integrate international student-athletes into the NCAA's amateurism standard.

And those are just a few of the hurdles.

The group will be assisted by the Presidential Task Force on Commercial Activities in Intercollegiate Athletics, formed earlier this year by the Board of Directors and expected to develop guiding principles for the formation of commercialism legislation.

The NCAA has struggled with amateurism issues for a long time, and while the discussion will likely never come to a simple resolution that makes everyone happy, the cabinet members are committed to any change that will enhance the experience for student-athletes.