The System: The Glory and Scandal of Big-Time College Football

College football has never been more popular--or more chaotic. Millions fill 100,000-seat stadiums every Saturday; tens of millions more watch every weekend on television. Billions of dollars in television deals now flow into the game; the average budget for a top-ten team is $80 million; top coaches make more than $3 million.
But behind this glittering success are the darker truths--"athlete-students" working essentially full-time jobs with no share in the oceans of money, who often don't graduate and end their careers with broken bodies; "janitors" who clean up player misconduct; football "hostesses"; paid test takers; recruiting slush funds. And this: Despite the millions of dollars pouring into the game, 90 percent of major athletic departments still lose money. Yet schools remain caught up in an ever-escalating "arm's race"--at the expense of academic scholarships, facilities, and faculty.
Celebrated investigative journalists Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian were granted unprecedented access during the 2012 season to programs at the highest levels across the country. Through dogged reporting they explored every nook and cranny of this high-powered machine and reveal from the inside out how it operates. The result: The System through the eyes of athletic directors and coaches, high-flying boosters, five-star recruits and NCAA investigators, and the kids on whom the whole vast enterprise depends.
Both a celebration of the power and pageantry of NCAA football, and a groundbreaking, thought-provoking critique of its excess, The System is the definitive book on the college game.