NCAA RULE SEEMS LIKE SUCH A GOOD IDEA.(MAIN)

Byline: WILLIAM RASPBERRY

WASHINGTON -- The National Collegiate Athletic Association, under pressure from the Department of Justice and presumably prodded by human compassion, is about to commit a bissagiatt.

I'd better explain what a bissagiatt is. It is my word for any innovation that, when put into practice, leads people to say: ``But It Seemed Such A Good Idea At The Time.''

California's Proposition 209, which has decimated the ranks of blacks and Hispanics at the state's elite universities, may be a good recent example. Right-on-red -- also out of California? -- is another.

And now the NCAA. Under newly adopted rules, the organization …