There have been a slew of books written about the faults and foibles of college sports, some hitting very close to home as to what is really going on. Five years ago, journalists Joe Nocera (then of the NYT, now of Bloomberg) and Ben Strauss (then of the NYT, now of the Washington Post) collaborated on a look into college sports titled “Indentured: Inside the story of the rebellion against the NCAA”. It was one of the first books to reframe the narrative surrounding college sports-instead of greedy athletes who illegally sold jerseys to make some extra cash (looking at you Terrell Pryor and other OSU football players), the narrative shifted to how outlandish the athletic department, conferences and the NCAA itself was behaving with billion dollar TV contracts, multi-million coaches, ADs and conference commissioners. The new focus from journalists and academics became about how corrupt the system was. "Indentured" lands squarely in the middle of that conversation.
I’m joined by Ben Strauss, co-author of Indentured, and currently a sports and media writer for the Washington Post. Ben understands the college athletics media space like few others. We discuss the challenges that Division I athletics is facing and why he is skeptical about reform, and try to answer the question "is college athletics imploding because Jim Delany retired"?
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By Dr. Karen Weaver
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There have been a slew of books written about the faults and foibles of college sports, some hitting very close to home as to what is really going on. Five years ago, journalists Joe Nocera (then of the NYT, now of Bloomberg) and Ben Strauss (then of the NYT, now of the Washington Post) collaborated on a look into college sports titled “Indentured: Inside the story of the rebellion against the NCAA”. It was one of the first books to reframe the narrative surrounding college sports-instead of greedy athletes who illegally sold jerseys to make some extra cash (looking at you Terrell Pryor and other OSU football players), the narrative shifted to how outlandish the athletic department, conferences and the NCAA itself was behaving with billion dollar TV contracts, multi-million coaches, ADs and conference commissioners. The new focus from journalists and academics became about how corrupt the system was. "Indentured" lands squarely in the middle of that conversation.
I’m joined by Ben Strauss, co-author of Indentured, and currently a sports and media writer for the Washington Post. Ben understands the college athletics media space like few others. We discuss the challenges that Division I athletics is facing and why he is skeptical about reform, and try to answer the question "is college athletics imploding because Jim Delany retired"?
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