You know of abuse involving college athletes. You want to fix the problem but are apprehensive about the consequences to your career, your lifestyle, where it will all lead.

Coleen Rowley, the famed FBI whistleblower, has some advice: accept the uncertainty.

"Whenever you embark on a cause like this, you can't be sure of the outcome," said Rowley, whose pre-September 11 memo to her bosses about the FBI's failure to stop terrorists gained her national respect when released by investigators. "Everyone thinks there's a perfect way to bring up concerns and protect yourself. That path does not exist."

To shine a light is to generate heat. But for those brave enough to step forward with allegations of wrongdoing, there are ways to minimize the consequences.

Some tips from experts:

Document the case: Keep copies of all electronic and other correspondence with coaches, school officials and others to whom you may have raised concerns. Keep a diary or file away dated, contemporaneous notes, which are considered strong evidence in a court of law. "Cover your bases at home so they can't fire you for insubordination," said Linda Bensel-Meyers, the Tennessee whistleblower.

The whistleblowers

Some of college sports' most notable scandals came to light because of their conviction to right wrongs they discovered. But in the wake of their decision to speak up, whistleblowers often endure a backlash from both their college employers and the college's fans. Four whistleblowers shared their tales with ESPN.com: Norma McGill: Since getting involved in the Maurice Clarett saga with her accusations of academic wrongdoing, Norma McGill, a former graduate assistant at Ohio State, has been homeless at times. Jan Ganglehoff: She toppled one of college basketball's rising powers, costing Minnesota coach Clem Haskins his job. But since coming forward with admissions that she wrote papers for athletes, Jan Ganglehoff has suffered from bouts of depression, undergone quadruple bypass heart surgery, and lost 80 pounds. Linda Bensel-Meyers: After raising concerns about academic wrongdoing following Tennessee's 1998 national championship football season, Linda Bensel-Meyers was stripped of her administrative duties and her office was relocated to the basement. Jan Kemp: Two decades after blowing the whistle on academic wrongdoing at Georgia, where she was fired and then reinstated after winning a lawsuit, someone finally said thank you to Jan Kemp.

Recording important conversations can be helpful. Baylor assistant coach Abar Rouse taped Bears head coach Dave Bliss, who suggested to players and staff that they lie to investigators and describe slain teammate Patrick Dennehy as a drug dealer. (The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press maintains a list of state laws on taping conversations without second- or third-party consent.)

Where possible, experts advise, gather supporting materials -- whether plagiarized papers, incriminating memos, internal audits or other documents. It's easy for managers to dismiss an oral claim of wrongdoing, but much harder if there is a paper trail.

Consult whistleblower groups: The National Whistleblower Center, a nonprofit advocacy group in Washington, D.C., helps whistleblowers raise "significant and credible" allegations of wrongdoing. The staff can serve as a resource for information, strategies and lawyers. In exceptional cases, the center may even raise funds to help whistleblowers involved in legal action, said Kris Kolesnik, the NWC's executive director.

Other organizations that can be helpful are the Government Accountability Project and the Project on Government Oversight. The Drake Group, an organization outside the NCAA structure made up of reform-minded faculty members of universities around the country, serves as a de facto support network for whistleblowers.

Reach out to the media: Newspapers, Web sites and television news operations with a reputation for investigative journalism have helped force colleges to confront problems that otherwise would have gone ignored. In fact, virtually every major scandal that has forced change in NCAA sports has come as a result of a media report, as opposed to schools identifying a problem on their own and taking action.

Administrators may be uncomfortable with university employees going to the press, but using First Amendment rights to identify abuse has long been a defensible position, as long as other laws are respected. "The best protection for whistleblowers is not the law but getting the press on your side," Kolesnik said.

One federal law that must be negotiated carefully is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974, otherwise known as the Buckley Amendment. University employees who release certain kinds of identifiable information about an individual student potentially could put the college in a difficult spot with the U.S. government, said Jon Ericson, a former provost at Drake University who is writing a law journal article on FERPA.

"Under Buckley, the person who released the information would not be sued," Ericson said. "But if the person is an agent of the university, then the university could be subject to the loss of federal funds."

Filter it through a Congressman: In Washington, D.C, a common way to leak a sensitive document is to send it to a friendly member of Congress, who in turn then leaks it to a member of the press. Documents given to members of Congress cannot be used to retaliate against those who supply them, Kolesnik said.

Many universities have whistleblower protection policies, although those policies sometimes have been criticized for being out of date and lack the force of law.

Each case is different, and requires a tailored strategy, Bensel-Meyers said.

"You can't listen to what everyone else says you should do," she said. "You have to go with your gut, and that's the hardest part."

Tom Farrey is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at tom.farrey@espn3.com.