Jeremy Bloom, left, routinely made acrobatic catches for the Buffaloes. Brian Bahr/Getty Images

High atop some snowy mountain in Chile, Jeremy Bloom will soon pull on his Under Armour gear, adjust his Bollé sunglasses and get on with the business of training for the Olympics. He'll love every minute of carving up the slope, bouncing across moguls and getting big air. It's his passion, and he's one of the world's best.

He would rather be in Boulder, Colo. Not that the ski conditions are any better along the front range of the Rockies this time of year. They aren't. After all, it's winter in the Andes. Bloom would prefer to be enduring two-a-day practices at the University of Colorado, honing his skills as a dangerous wide receiver and return man and hoping to help bring the Buffaloes back into Big 12 contention. But that ain't happening.

Thanks to another brutally close-minded decision Tuesday by the NCAA, Bloom was declared ineligible for this season and beyond for accepting sponsorship dollars needed to fund his training for the '06 Winter Games in Turin, Italy.

After NCAA president Myles Brand spewed platitudes about how he wanted the organization to be more athlete-friendly under his regime, Brand and his stooges went back to their old, Stalinist ways designed to restrict student-athlete freedom. Is it any wonder that men's college basketball players are leaving school after one season and their football counterparts are fighting to be sprung early, too? Why toil for schools that are part of an organization which chases the almighty buck shamelessly, all the while fighting to limit the rights of the players who generate the dough? And don't even try to give that old argument about the value of a full scholarship. College athletics are not about academics any more than reality shows are about high-quality entertainment. A full ride is worth plenty to a biology major who hopes to conduct cancer research some day. To a power forward with serious NBA aspirations and a two-year (if that) college timeframe, it means little.

If this were 1974, the NCAA's decision wouldn't be at all surprising, and no one would be complaining. Back then, amateurism was clearly defined, and in every corner of the world -- except the Eastern Bloc -- the line between professionals and those who competed for "the love of sport" was bold and unquestioned. But this isn't 1974, and what constitutes an amateur is far different than it was 30 years ago. Olympic pools, courts and playing fields are filled today with athletes who receive stipends, endorsement money and flat-out salaries, when at one time they had to hold bake sales and car washes to raise money they needed to train.

Bloom wasn't trying to get rich as a freestyle skier. He needed cash to prepare for Turin. The cheapest round-trip flight from Denver to Santiago El Hombre could find was $1,150. Equipment, apparel and living expenses run into the thousands. Some of that is picked up by the U.S. Ski Team, but not all of it. Bloom needs Under Armour. He needs Bollé.

And the NCAA needs to stay in charge. It fears that allowing Bloom to play would encourage other athletes to seek endorsement deals, perhaps even in the college sport they are playing. The organization is also angry that Bloom went through the courts to gain permission to play the past couple years. That stuff really makes the NCAA angry. Anyone who tries to make end runs around the autocracy can end up in Siberia -- or Chile. In its narrow world, the NCAA is protecting its honor, which it then besmirches regularly by allowing beer advertisements on broadcasts of its games and athletic departments to operate as stand-alone sporting corporations seeking constant new revenue streams. The NC2A had no problem with Colorado's making a nice profit off the sale of his No. 15 jersey the past couple of seasons, even though Bloom never saw any of the take.

Bloom was willing to suspend his endorsements for the remainder of his time at Colorado. But that wasn't enough. The mere fact that he signed the contracts back in January, when he knew the NCAA wouldn't like it, sealed his fate. Maybe he should have waited, but the best of the best in Europe weren't holding back. Bloom loves football, but he's world-class on the slopes. He needed the money to compete. So, he took it. Bloom has launched an appeal, which will be heard by folks with minds that could be more open than those on the staff in Indianapolis. But he won't get too excited. The NCAA isn't known for its propensity for making about-faces.

So, on snowy mornings in Chile, Jeremy Bloom works at his craft, dreaming of Olympic gold. The NCAA is back at work, too, smashing more athletes' dreams.

Next on the docket: USC receiver Mike Williams and his appeal. Don't get your hopes up.

Spin control for MLB

Just two days before Major League baseball owners were set to give him a fat, three-year extension, commissioner Bud Selig declared that the sport was "more popular than ever" and was in "a golden age." He cited spanking new cash registers, er, ballparks, improved attendance and labor peace for his comments. And while he is right to crow about those high points, declaring baseball's "golden age" to be upon us is like calling Jessica Simpson a serious artist.

The game's credibility is at a nadir, thanks to continuing suspicions about who is and who isn't juicing. Recent stories about Jason Giambi's mystery tumor and Gary Sheffield's recurring painful shoulder injury don't help things, since both have been connected with the BALCO investigation. Every time Barry Bonds hits another homer, he fuels speculation about his unprecedented late-career numbers explosion.

Selig was smart not to mention TV ratings when referring to the golden age. All-Star numbers are just over a third of what they were 25 years ago. The World Series checked in at 13.9 in 2003, well below the 20.2 registered in 1992. MLB may be bailed out this year by a Cubs-Red Sox Fall Classic, but rooting for that to happen can lead only to misery. And don't forget the Montreal franchise mess, which is being complicated by Selig's friendship with Baltimore owner Peter Angelos, who vehemently opposes an Expos move to D.C.

It's Selig's job to be a positive spokesman for baseball, but his recent proclamations strain the credulity of a man and a sport that have lost considerable luster. In many cities, fans are flocking to see stadiums, not the god-awful teams which play there. And fewer and fewer people are tuning in at home. Selig should be happy he has a pair of great wild-card races going on, because casual fans might just be interested in them. Short of that, the best news he can deliver is that this year's NFL season doesn't start until Sept. 12.

EL HOMBRE SEZ: Those Cleveland Indians are making quite a push in the AL Central. Then again, you never could keep Jake Taylor, Rick Vaughn and Willie Mays Hayes down in August ... Still no comment from Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie or coach Andy Reid about Terrell Owens' hateful comments in Playboy. Real strong showing by a bottom-line owner afraid of angering a highly-paid player and a coach without the fortitude to stand up for what's right ... European sprint champion Dwain Chambers, a BALCO customer who tested positive for THG (surprise!) earlier this year, has enrolled at Chabot JC in Hayward, Calif., and joined the football team. With his history, shouldn't he be trying baseball? At least there, he won't have to worry as much about those pesky urine tests.

AND ANOTHER THING: El Hombre hasn't given up on his prediction of gold for the U.S. men's hoops team, but the squad's play during the first three games of the Olympic tourney has exposed NBA basketball as something of a closed-society hybrid of the real thing. With its clear-outs, one-on-one infatuation, crappy defense, constant dribble penetration and disdain for players who shoot well but don't test their manhood by "taking it hard to the rack," the NBA version doesn't resemble the purer style practiced by the rest of the world. That was just fine when our pros could stomp mercilessly on all comers, but now they look like Canadian Football League players trying to adjust to American rules. These guys don't know how to play real basketball. Period. Oh, and by the way, every time T-Mac, K.G., Mike Bibby and Shaq tune into Olympic coverage, let's hope they feel a tinge of responsibility for this mess (as if!). If they were in Athens, things would be plenty different.