On the surface, Randolph Morris and Jack Johnson might seem to have just a few things in common. Both were student-athletes at big time college sports programs — Morris a center with the University of Kentucky’s basketball program, and Johnson a defenseman for the University of Michigan hockey team — and both are now playing in the pros. The pair skipped out on college mid-semester to play for money, Morris with the Knicks and Johnson with the Los Angeles Kings. You can’t blame either for taking a huge haul of cash and turning their backs (if only temporarily) on the classroom.

But what really unites the two is that both men are among the reminders that college is often nothing more than a free farm system for the National Football League and the National Basketball Association, and a training program for Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League. While the president of the NCAA, Myles Brand, continues to talk about the progress the big college sports programs are making in graduating players and lifting grade point averages, evidence to the contrary keeps cropping up.

It’s unknown how Morris’s departure from the Wildcats program will affect Kentucky’s academic progress report. Kentucky could face scholarship penalties as a result of Morris leaving early and more so if he was not in good academic standing. Brand and many other academic officials at the major colleges are reportedly concerned about GPAs and academic standings. Johnson, a sophomore this year, has said he plans to return to Michigan after the Kings’ season is done (which will be soon because Los Angeles won’t make the playoffs). But even with the best of intentions, Johnson will more than likely be selected to play for the American team in the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships to be held in Moscow, between April 27 and May 13. And those dates would seem to conflict with final exams. Johnson might not be the only college player on the American team. Boston College goaltender Cory Schneider, Miami of Ohio’s Nathan Davis, and Minnesota’s Erik Johnson could also be on the roster.

For the most talented college athletes, the game seems always to trump education — and it’s not limited to basketball programs where the scrutiny about whether schools are educating players tends to be directed. If Brand wants to continue to talk about education, grade point averages and graduation, he needs to talk about the entire spectrum of college sports and the outside forces that affect college athletes.

The NCAA doesn’t exist in a bubble, so when the pros call, the athlete can head for the door. A college or university has a basic contractual agreements with an athlete — it’s called a scholarship. The athlete is there to play the game and help the school raise money for and public awareness of the program. In exchange, the athlete, if he or she takes advantage of it, could get an education. Still, that education comes at a price. The athlete has to perform on the field, and if the athlete fails to live up to his or her promise, a coach could arbitrarily take the scholarship away.

After signing the great Illinois running back Red Grange just minutes after the college football season ended in 1925, Chicago Bears owner George Halas saw to it that the NFL would never hire a college football player after his season ended. Halas was afraid he would miss out on the next Grange, although his Bears played during an era when college players would compete for their school on Saturday and play in the NFL under an assumed name and behind a leather facemask on Sunday.

These days, most college athletes don’t have the leverage that Morris or Johnson had. In fact, Morris was able to sign with the Knicks because of a loophole that had nothing to do with the NCAA or Brand. Morris had declared himself eligible for the 2005 NBA Draft. After no one took him in the two-round grab bag, he became ineligible for any future drafts because of a provision in the NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement. This left Morris free to sign a deal with any NBA team at any time — including midsemester. The March signing was great for Morris but might not be good news for the next Wildcats coach. Indeed, Morris may have damaged Kentucky’s GPA and its ability to replace him with a scholarship player.

But that’s not Morris’s concern. The player put in his three years at Kentucky, and those years were good to him and to the school. He improved enough that he could sign a big pro deal and Kentucky made it to the NCAA tournament. It was a fair deal for both. Whether he returns later to complete his education is up to him.

There are scores of other college athletes who are probably slacking off in the second semester as they prepare for the next phase of their athletic careers. The National Football League held its scouting combine over the course of a week in Indianapolis. There, college juniors who had declared themselves draft eligible, and seniors went through drills for scouts. Others just showed up and scheduled “pro days” at their schools, another event that distracts them from their studies.

This week, 64 of college basketball’s best players are in Portsmouth, Va., to work out and play in games before NBA scouts in preparation for the draft. The Portsmouth Invitational Tournament will take those 64 players away from the classroom, as they crisscross North America beginning in November until the end of February, often playing games in faraway locales at strange times to satisfy the needs of cable and overthe-air TV networks.

A system whereby student athletes spend so much time on the road doesn’t seem to lend itself to educating them. The NHL will also take a number of players off campus this month and jump-start their pro careers in playoff settings in the minor leagues. And MLB will raid college and university teams in its amateur draft in June. The way baseball operates is simple: A player is drafted after high school, and should the major league clubs fail to sign the draftee, the player can go on to college on scholarship, where he will be eligible for the draft after his junior year.

Texas Tech coach Bobby Knight made an interesting point about the NBA’s rule of not allowing 18-year-olds in the league and how that has affected college basketball. Knight wondered aloud whether freshmen biding their time waiting to get into the NBA are actually attending any classes during the second semester of school.

Congress, which routinely holds hearings on college sports concerning such frivolous subjects as how the NCAA came up with the Bowl Championship Series, should instead consider Knight’s comments. A full hearing on whether student athletes are violating their agreements by essentially punching out in their last semester — and whether colleges and universities look the other way as they do — merits investigating. (This is particularly important in the case of an organization that enjoys tax-exempt status like the NCAA.)

Morris and Johnson have undercut Brand even as he touts his new initiatives to raise GPA and graduation levels. They aren’t the first, nor will they be the last to eschew the classroom when the pros come calling. That’s just how it is in the world of college sports.

evanjweiner@yahoo.com