Robert M. Gates, the former defense secretary, agreed this summer to lead a committee to rewrite the constitution of the perpetually embattled N.C.A.A.

In an interview with The New York Times, his first with a news organization as the committee’s chairman, Gates spoke at length about the problems he sees with the N.C.A.A., the changes he imagines making and why, at 77, he is willing to take on one of the most complex bureaucracies in sports.