Sports Item ID: #923Varsity Green: A Behind the Scenes Look at Culture and Corruption in College AthleticsProduct Information:
Item DescriptionIn Varsity Green, Mark Yost cuts through clichés and common misconceptions to take a hard-eyed look at the current state of college athletics. He takes readers behind the scenes of the conspicuous and high-revenue business of college sports in order to dissect the enormous television revenues, merchandising rights, bowl game payoffs, sneaker contracts, and endorsement deals that often pay state university coaches more than the college president, or even the governor.
Money in college sports is nothing new. But readers will be amazed at the alarming depth and breadth of influence, both financial and otherwise, that college sports has within our culture. Readers will learn how academic institutions capitalize on the success of their athletic programs, and what role sports-based revenues play across campus, from the training room to the science lab. Yost pays particular attention to the climate that big-money athletics has created over the past decade, as both the NCAA’s March Madness and the Bowl Championship Series have become multi-billion dollar businesses. This analysis goes well beyond campus, showing how the corrupting influences that drive college athletics today have affected every aspect of youth sports, and have seeped into our communities in ways that we would not otherwise suspect. This book is not only for the players, policymakers, and other insiders who are affected by the changing economics of college athletics; it is a must-read for any sports fan who engages with the NCAA and deserves to see the business behind the game. Item ReviewsOne Response to “Varsity Green: A Behind the Scenes Look at Culture and Corruption in College Athletics”Leave a Reply |
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We’re all accustomed to hearing too many stories about badly behaving college athletes, many of whom might flunk a basic literacy test, and lavish college sports facilities. Even as many of us roll our eyes at these shenanigans and examples of misplaced priorities, we still tune in religiously to follow our favorite college teams — a paradox that is at the heart of this intriguing book about the business of college sports.
I can easily see that nobody engaged in this world will be happy with what Mark Yost finds after he turns his keen eye on it. Those boosters who claim that the current system is a win-win, giving colleges great teams and youngsters a chance at an education, will be infuriated by Yost’s damning indictment of an educational system that encourages young people to believe that they have a real shot at going pro via a college team (in fact, in a too-often repeated statistic, he notes that 3% of high school athletes will get a college scholarship; only 2% of those will have any kind of pro career) and then after coddling them and sheltering them from reality, abandons them to sink or swim when they tear a ligament and can’t generate any revenue for the institution. On the other hand, those on the academic side will likely not enjoy Yost’s even-handed analysis: he points out that a lot of the revenue from successful and profitable athletic teams actually helps subsidize academic programs and that so far, there is little proof that athletic donations are cannibalizing those to academic chairs and other programs.
This is an intriguing look behind the scenes at some of the top coaches, the top donors, the administrators and the boosters. Throughout it all, Yost makes clear his sympathy for those he sees as the biggest victims of what may be a gigantic hoax perpetrated by colleges in their own interest, at the expense of the ‘student-athletes’: that the latter are playing for the love of the game and the institution, even as the college profits from their labor.
I read this toward the beginning of the March Madness of 2010; I’ll find it hard to look at that or any other collegiate sports program the same way again. Well-balanced, and well-researched, this is a great book to read for any sports fan, or even for someone curious about the extent to which elite athletes have become celebrities and what that means for our society. Yes, it’s published by an academic press, but this is immensely readable, and highly recommended.