Schools for Scandal: The Dysfunctional Marriage of Division I Sports and Higher Education

by Sheldon Anderson

Overview

For well over a century, big-time college sports has functioned as a business enterprise, one that serves to undermine the mission of institutions of higher education.This book chronicles the long and tortured history of the NCAA’s attempt to maintain the myth of amateurism and the student-athlete, along with the attendant fiction that the players’ academic achievement is the top priority of Division-I athletic programs. It is an indictment of the current system, making the case that big-time college sports cannot continue its connection to universities without undermining the mission of higher education. It concludes with bold proposals to separate big-time college sports from the university, transforming them into on-campus business operations.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826275028
Publisher:	University of Missouri Press
Publication date:	05/22/2024
Series:	Sports and American Culture
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	296
File size:	860 KB

About the Author

Sheldon Anderson is professor emeritus of history from Miami University (of Ohio), where he taught international studies, world history, European diplomatic history, and sports history.He has written six books and co-authored another, including Jump Shooting to a Higher Degree: My Basketball Odyssey, The Forgotten Legacy of Stella Walsh: The Greatest Female Athlete of Her Time, The Politics and Culture of Modern Sports, and A Cold War in the Soviet Bloc: Polish-East German Relations, 1945-62. He also edited Twin Cities Sports: Games for All Seasons.
 

Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction Chapter One. The “Accidental Industry”: The NCAA and the Myth of the Amateur Athlete Chapter Two. The Big Gamble: Peddling College on the Front Porch of D-I Sports Chapter Three. You Play, We Profit: The Exploitation of College Athletes Chapter Four. The D-I Rap Sheet: Point Shavers, Sexual Predators, Escorts, and Cheats Chapter Five. Take the Money and Run: Carpetbagger Coaches and Recruiting Ruses Chapter Six. Good Ol’ Boys’ Club: The NCAA’s Fight Against Minorities and Women Chapter Seven. No Contest: Sports Rout Academics Chapter Eight. Cheating to Make the Grade: Keeping Athletes Eligible Chapter Nine. Exercises in Futility: Reforming the Unreformable NCAA Chapter Ten. On Defense: Pom-Pom Presidents, Booster Boards, NCAA Bureaucrats, and the Status Quo Chapter Eleven. A New Game Plan: Free Market Campus Sports, the American Way Chapter Twelve. Student-Athletes for Sale: Making Millions on NIL Deals Afterword References Index

Editorial Reviews

Like a lawyer building a strong case, Anderson compiles anecdotes, histories, quotes, testimonials, observations, facts, and numbers to argue that college sports are, and always have been, a business that produces clear winners (coaches, athletic directors, and the NCAA) and losers (college athletes). So well does Schools for Scandals make its points that at times the reader is left dumbstruck by the sheer hubris, hypocrisy, corruption, greed, and duplicity exhibited by those controlling college athletics.”—Chris Elzey, George Mason University, coeditor of DC Sports: The Nation’s Capital at Play  

"Well-researched and written with verve and biting wit, this 'unvarnished polemic' is a welcome addition to the scholarship on the peculiar, financially voracious, and hypocritical beast that is big-time intercollegiate athletics. Ranging far and wide, in the past and the present, Sheldon Anderson does more than document the exploitative nature of a deeply entrenched and flawed institution. He also provides us with thoughtful and engaging ideas about what should replace the toxic intercollegiate athletics system—ideas fueled by moral outrage and a desire to bring more integrity to higher education and justice to exploited college athletes."—Daniel A. Nathan, past president of the North American Society for Sport History, editor of the Journal of Sport History

 

"Schools for Scandal is an extraordinarily honest and compelling book that explains in rich detail how big-time college sports have subverted the stated goals of higher education. Not merely content to reveal the unsavory side of intercollegiate athletics, Anderson provides specific reform measures that could be implemented to guarantee educationally-sound sports programs. For anyone interested in college athletics and the connection between sport and higher education, this is essential reading."—David K. Wiggins, George Mason University, author of More than a Game: A History of the African American Experience in Sport
 

From the Publisher