NEWPORT, R.I. -- NFL commissioner Roger Goodell's tough policies regarding players' off-field incidents has been applauded by many people from many walks of life, including some college football coaches who believe it will have a trickle-down effect on their sport.

But while coaches talk about wanting players of high character, the pressure to win forces them to take a chance on talented players with checkered pasts.

"[The NFL policy] is already affecting college football," Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said at Big East media day. "Any player who thinks he might have NFL aspirations, which is just about every one of them these days, better understand now that everything they do will be scrutinized. We had all 32 teams represented at our Pro Day this year and the first thing every one of those scouts wanted to know about was the character of our guys."

		"There are bad apples but not nearly as many as some people would have you believe." -- Rich Rodriguez

Wannstedt's sentiments on character issues are similar to those of other Big East coaches.

West Virginia's Rich Rodriguez, who has dismissed criticism of his program based on the behavior of former Mountaineers Adam "Pac-Man" Jones and Chris Henry, supports the NFL's new policy and believes it will have a positive effect.

"It is ridiculous people are still calling us about a couple of guys who we have no control over," Rodriguez said. "I mean, are people calling USC to ask about O.J. Simpson? How can you blame us for guys who we haven't talked with in years? We recruit quality kids who are quality students and we go to great lengths to make sure those are the kind of players we recruit and we've had very few problems.

"There are bad apples but not nearly as many as some people would have you believe."

Rodriguez's decision to sign linebacker Pat Lazear from Wheaton, Md., has caused him some grief.

Lazear pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit armed robbery in December for his role in a March 2006 robbery of a Bethesda, Md., store. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail, received a 10-year suspended sentence and three years probation. The incident wasn't his first run-in with the law. He received 90 days of court supervision for using a stolen credit card to purchase $130 sneakers in November 2004.

Rodriguez said the decision to take a risk on certain players is not easy and requires a thorough background check before it is made. He said people shouldn't be so quick to judge certain players without knowing all the facts.

"Character is in the eye of the beholder if you ask me," Rodriguez said. "How can you judge character without knowing a person? You take a kid like Lazear, who we believe, after doing a lot of research into his family and background, is a good kid. He just made a poor decision to get in the wrong car with the wrong buddy and ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Rodriguez isn't the only Big East coach wrestling with the character issue.

Rutgers coach Greg Schiano signed Plainfield (N.J.) High School's Reggie Dixon, one of the top players in the state who is also a registered sex offender. He was found guilty of sexual assault on his teenage stepsister.

But in April, an hour before ESPN was set to air a story about Dixon's background, Schiano rescinded Dixon's scholarship.

Rutgers also was one of only two schools that didn't pull a scholarship offer to Florida prep star Antwain Easterling after he was charged with lewd and lascivious battery, a second-degree felony, in December for having sex with a 14-year-old in a women's bathroom at his high school. Easterling later signed with Southern Mississippi.

The fact that Schiano was willing to take a chance on a kid with Dixon's past illustrates how difficult the balance between character and winning can be.

"I think there is always a fine line with kids who have a past," Wannstedt said. "I think you have to weigh a lot of factors. I think you can take a risk on the right kid from time to time, but you are asking for trouble if those kids constitute more than 15 or 20 percent of your recruiting class in a given year.

"You can take a few chances, but if someone has a long pattern of getting into trouble, you need to have the discipline to stay away."

Pitt athletic director Jeff Long said he couldn't speak for other schools about their policies, but he is proud of Pitt's record in dealing with players who have stepped over the line. He pushed hard to get the Big East to toughen some of its academic standards for incoming freshmen and he would like to see a tougher, more uniform policy on dealing with character issues and criminal incidents.

Ultimately, however, he knows that winning is still going to motivate a lot of coaches and schools to take risks on kids who maybe don't deserve the privilege of playing college football.

"It starts with hiring the right kind of coaches," Long said. "And we have high-character coaches who value recruiting high-character kids. The student-athletes who have stumbled have to be dealt with because ultimately it is up to each institution to decide what kind of kid they want to wear the uniform that represents their school."