The System - by Jeff Benedict & Armen Keteyian (Paperback)

About the Book

A revelatory account based on the authors' unprecedented access to the NCAA's highest-level programs throughout the 2012 season describes its high-powered system of billion-dollar television deals, high-priced coaches, football "hostessing," castoff athlete-students, and paid test takers.

Book Synopsis

A Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Year

NCAA football is big business. Every Saturday millions of people file into massive stadiums or tune in on television as "athlete-students" give everything they've got to make their team a success. Billions of dollars now flow into the game. But what is the true cost? The players have no share in the oceans of money. And once the lights go down, the glitter doesn't shine so brightly. Filled with mind-blowing details of major NCAA football scandals, with stops at Ohio State, Tennessee, Texas Tech, Missouri, BYU, LSU, Texas A&M and many more, The System explores and exposes the complex, and perhaps broken, machine that churns behind the glamour of college football.

With a New Afterword.

Review Quotes

"The best book on the sport written in years. . . . There's just no way a college football fan won't devour this book."--Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports

"[A] harrowing and occasionally uplifting journey--or literary trip--through recent history and across the country's most football-obsessed campuses."--The New York Times

"Throw[s] the penalty flag on the troubled and troubling state of college football."--The Chicago Tribune

"The authors are superb at humanizing figures like the college presidents struggling to maintain a balance and even longtime Ohio State booster Bobby DiGeronimo, who became a fall guy for the scandal-beset school."--The Christian Science Monitor

"One of the most sweeping yet meticulously researched books ever written on big-time college football. . . . A vital read."--The Hartford Courant

"The System is a broad survey of the machinery of college football."--The Wall Street Journal

About the Author

JEFF BENEDICT is one of the country's top investigative reporters. He is a special features contributor for Sports Illustrated and the author of eleven critically acclaimed books, including Pros and Cons and Out of Bounds. His essays and articles have appeared in the New York Times, Newsweek and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications.

ARMEN KETEYIAN is a CBS News correspondent based in New York and the lead correspondent for 60 Minutes Sports on Showtime. An eleven-time Emmy Award winner, he is widely regarded as one of the finest investigative journalists in the country. He is also the author or coauthor of nine previous books, including Money Players and Raw Recruits.