DES MOINES, Iowa — An investigation of 25 top college football programs by Sports Illustrated and CBS News reports that 18 Iowa players had been in trouble with the law either before or after entering college.

SI and CBS News did various criminal background checks on all the players on the rosters of the teams in Sports Illustrated's 2010 preseason top 25 as of Sept. 1.

Iowa's total ranked second with Arkansas among programs in SI's preseason top 25.

Pittsburgh was first with 22 players who'd been in trouble with the law.

According to a story posted Wednesday on SI.com, the study found about 7 percent of the 2,837 players — 204 total — were found to have police records.

The investigation revealed that Oklahoma and TCU were the only schools of the 25 studied to do criminal background checks on recruits.

"Seven percent, that's way to high,'' NCAA President Mark Emmert told SI. "I think two percent is too high. You certainly don't want a large number of people with criminal backgrounds involved in activities that represent the NCAA.''

There are no available correlating figures for the general student populations of those universities.