Overview

With a Foreword by Ara ParseghianThe debate over big-time college sports, never far from the front pages, has once again moved from simmering to hot. Congress has been investigating the tax-exempt status of the NCAA in part because of questions about how commercialized college sports contribute to educational values. Athletes are challenging the NCAA on antitrust grounds to get a bigger share of the revenue. Against this backdrop, more faculty are beginning to be concerned about what is happening at their own universities and to the educational system as a whole as rampant commercialism further invades campus life through big-time sports. A leader among faculty fighting back has been Allen Sack, a co-founder of the Drake Group whose writings and public appearances, including work as an expert witness, have gained him wide recognition as an outspoken advocate for athletic reform. This book brings together in a compelling way both his personal story of life as a highly recruited athlete out of high school and a football player at Notre Dame under legendary coach Ara Parseghian and his fight, since then, as a scholar-activist against what he calls the ""academic capitalism"" of the system under current NCAA rules. Sack distinguishes his own position, as an advocate of athletes' rights, from the reformist stance of NCAA President Myles Brand, who believes that commercialized sport and education can peacefully coexist, and the ""intellectual elitist"" position of people like William Dowling, who would like to see big-time college sports kicked off campus altogether. It is a battle with high stakes for all concerned, not least the athletes whose exploitation by the system has been the motivating force for Sack's own campaign, now stretching over several decades.

Full Product Details

Author:   Allen L. Sack ,  Ara Parseghian
Publisher:   Pennsylvania State University Press
Imprint:   Pennsylvania State University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.327kg
ISBN:  

9780271054094

ISBN 10:   0271054093
Pages:   216
Publication Date:   15 November 2011
Audience:   General/trade ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

Contents Foreword by Ara Parseghian Preface Acknowledgments Part I: College Football in the Sixties 1. Playing Football in Ara's Era 2. Scholastic Sports as a Pipeline to the Pros 3. The Game of the Century Part II: Linking Sports and Politics 4. Politics, Protest, and the Athletic Revolution 5. Laying the Groundwork for Professional College Sports 6. Taking a Stand at Fort Apache Part III: Shouting from the Ivory Tower 7. Building an Industry on Athletes' Backs 8. Fighting for Market Share in the 1990s 9. Inside the Billion-Dollar Beast 10. College Sports in the Age of Academic Capitalism Suggested Reading

Reviews

Allen Sack has lived the dream and yet seen the nightmares of college sport. Understanding the demands upon athletes who also want educations, he seeks intercollegiate reform through athletes' rights. -- Ronald A. Smith

<em>Counterfeit Amateurs: An Athlete's Journey through the Sixties to the Age of Academic Capitalism</em> is an important book for anyone participating [in] . . . or studying big-time intercollegiate athletics. It is rare to find a book that seamlessly combines personal experiences, interviews with prominent college sport practitioners, and academic research into a forum that is both comprehensive and understandable. Though Sack's answers to the problems currently facing intercollegiate athletics may often not be 'popular, ' there is no doubt that he thoroughly conveys his understanding of recent NCAA history and the importance of each issue to the book's readers. </p>--Mark S. Nagel, <em>Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics</em></p>

Author Information

Allen L. Sack is Professor of Management and Director of the Institute for Sports Management at the University of New Haven. He is co-author of College Athletes for Hire: The Evolution and Legacy of the NCAA's Amateur Myth (1998).

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