FORT WORTH, Texas — A wave of scandals that began with the dismissal of University of Georgia basketball coach Jim Harrick in March and continues with revelations surrounding former Baylor basketball coach Dave Bliss, may result in irreparable damage to the integrity of college coaches.

That has prompted an unprecedented response from the NCAA.

"The NCAA is treating this as if it were a crime wave," said Myles Brand, president of the NCAA. "We are hiring more investigators and taking almost a law-and-order approach to misbehavior.

"In those cases (involving high-profile coaches), it makes me wonder whether the coaches, because of their marketability, compensation and fan adulation, have come to feel above the morality and societal norms that govern us all."

The scandals of recent months have resulted in a crisis of confidence in college coaches and given parents of scholarship athletes reason to question the character of coaches entrusted with the responsibility of being role models, mentors and authority figures for their children.

The question is: Are the cases isolated or part of a trend?

At stake is the integrity of college athletics, which has never been more in doubt.

Although Brand said he believes that the vast majority of coaches are proper role models and mentors, he is taking the same no-nonsense approach he did in 2000 when, as president of Indiana University, he removed Bob Knight after the basketball coach and icon known for his angry tirades violated a zero-tolerance policy.

The transgressions committed by basketball and football coaches since spring have so far been greeted mostly by silence from other coaches, conference commissioners and associations. Brand said that is understandable given the potential legal ramifications of speaking out. "It's a litigious society," he said.

But "as a group, coaches are feeling hurt and harmed. And coaches as a group have to stand up and say this is not acceptable."

Richard Lapchick, who in 1984 founded the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University in Boston, said he believes that most coaches are ethical. "But it's a fraternity like any other in a common profession, so I'm not surprised" that coaches are mostly quiet, said Lapchick, now at the University of Central Florida.

Grant Teaff, who coached Baylor football for 21 years and has been executive director of the American Football Coaches Association since 1994, said that although members are "shocked and dismayed" by the revelations, "coaches prefer not to comment most of time because they don't know all the facts."

"We wonder, 'Gosh what's going on?'" Teaff said. "We think that what seems like a rampant situation is extremely isolated. But there's no question that perception is reality.

"I've had a horribly painful summer dealing with the issues of a handful of coaches." And those coaches have cast aspersions on all college coaches.

A review of the most recent cases:

• Harrick was dismissed by Georgia President Michael Adams when it was revealed that three players took a phony class taught by his son Jim Harrick Jr.

• Alabama President Robert Witt, former president of the University of Texas at Arlington, fired football coach Mike Price in early May after reports that the coach had visited a topless bar in Pensacola, Fla., and that a woman billed about $1,000 worth of room service to Price's hotel room.

• Iowa State basketball coach Larry Eustachy resigned in May when it was disclosed that he occasionally partied with students at post game beer blasts. Although not illegal, the fact that the 47-year-old Eustachy was photographed drinking with female students was considered improper conduct by Iowa State.

• University of Washington football coach Rick Neuheisel was fired in June for betting on NCAA basketball tournaments and lying to school officials about it, according to Barbara Hedges, the athletic director.

• Dave Bliss resigned as Baylor basketball coach Aug. 8 for having made improper tuition payments to player Patrick Dennehy. A week later, secret tape recordings revealed that Bliss schemed to cover up the payments by portraying Dennehy as a drug dealer. Another former Baylor player is accused of killing Dennehy.

• And now, Ohio State University and the University of Missouri are conducting investigations into possible academic fraud in their football and basketball programs, respectively. Also, Ohio State star running back Maurice Clarett has been suspended for multiple games for receiving improper benefits, among them the use of a car by a Columbus, Ohio, dealership.

But Bliss' actions at Baylor have caused perhaps the biggest shock waves in the history of college athletics.

"It's like looking at the Grand Canyon," said Jim Haney, executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. "You can't take it all in."

Lapchick, whose father, Joe Lapchick, coached the New York Knicks and St. John's University, said the Bliss case is the worst he's ever heard of.

"It's so off the charts in terms of coach's behavior, so cold and calculating, that it's got to make presidents and athletic directors worry that this can possibly happen on 'my campus,'" he said. "It shakes them to their bones."

There is a feeling among some observers, Brand included, that a few coaches may believe that their celebrity and success insulates them, that they are not bound by a code of ethics, such as the one subscribed to by the American Football Coaches Association.

Some of their behavior may be fueled by money. In 2001, 30 football and basketball coaches earned more than $1 million a year each, according to the Knight Commission, formed in 1989 to recommend changes for improving the integrity of college athletics.

"I get concerned by the large salaries and publicity about large salaries," Teaff said. "Too many coaches are coming in for the wrong reason. They see the profession as an opportunity to become a millionaire by doing what they love to do: coaching.

"Historically, individuals came into coaching because they were touched and motivated by their high school coaches. They love the game and want to do for others what was done for them."

There have even been suggestions that the incidents in recent months, although highly publicized, are not that unusual and that there has always been a small percentage of coaches who will cross the line of moral and ethical behavior.

Brand said he isn't buying that argument.

"There might be more arrogance now among some coaches," he said. "There are a considerable number of bad actors and incidents this summer, more than the average. Coaches must understand they have become points of scrutiny not unlike highly elected officials. Rules are changing for them too."

But some coaches may feel emboldened to bend or break the rules because of the cynicism pervading college sports, a perception that most athletic programs cheat on some level.

Thus, it's not surprising that many players may also be cynical about college athletics. "There's so much (cheating) going on, the NCAA is always going to be a step or two behind," said Keith Langford, a forward on the University of Kansas basketball team. "Nobody has any total honesty to the rules. It's on a national scale."

Coaches, Jim Haney said, often feel pressure to win, even from university presidents. Success means an invitation to a football bowl game or the post-season basketball tournament, and it means revenue for increasingly cash-strapped universities.

"I think there are people in this country who have no sense of right and wrong," Haney said. "The rules mean nothing. But they are a small minority."

But Haney acknowledged that the reputation of collegiate coaches has been severely damaged.

Brand said university presidents are sending a strong message to their coaches.

"They have stood up and fired the coaches and imposed penalties on their own team even when it's not popular on campus," he said. "They have been helped by media, the Internet and other methods of exposing bad behavior. We're calling it out more, and that's good."

Fort Worth Star-Telegram staff writers Rick Herrin and Kathleen O'Brien contributed to this report.