I am glad I read this. As I wade more deeply into intercollegiate athletics, I realize what a huge and complex set of issues it really involves. The case that the NCAA is a cartel seems pretty irrefutable to me, and I find myself quite persuaded by the argument that the current "student-athlete" model is massively regressive, transferring money from disproportionately poor and African-American folks to disproportionately rich and white ones. The Andy Schwarz essay addressing 13 NCAA myths, which is included in an Appendix, is pretty awesome, too, and I am really glad that it addressed the possible impacts of marketizing the system on women. The text stayed focused on men's basketball and football, for understandable reasons, but that was a blind spot that kept nagging at me.

I have some quibbles with the book -- how the NCAA gained traction early on is never really explained, for example -- but it was a good read and certainly provoked my thinking.