{"product_id":"indentured-isbn-9780143130550","title":"Indentured","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e “How can the NCAA blithely wreck careers without regard to due process or common fairness? How can it act so ruthlessly to enforce rules that are so petty? Why won’t anybody stand up to these outrageous violations of American values and American justice?”\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eIn the four years since Joe Nocera asked those ques­tions in a controversial \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ecolumn, the National Collegiate Athletic Association has come under fire. Fans have begun to realize that the athletes involved in the two biggest college sports, men’s bas­ketball and football, are little more than indentured servants. Millions of teenagers accept scholarships to chase their dreams of fame and fortune—at the price of absolute submission to the whims of an organiza­tion that puts their interests dead last.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eFor about 5 percent of top-division players, college ends with a golden ticket to the NFL or the NBA. But what about the overwhelming majority who never turn pro? They don’t earn a dime from the estimated $13 billion generated annually by college sports—an ocean of cash that enriches schools, conferences, coaches, TV networks, and apparel companies . . . everyone except those who give their blood and sweat to entertain the fans.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eIndentured \u003c\/i\u003etells the dramatic story of a loose-knit group of rebels who decided to fight the hypocrisy of the NCAA, which blathers endlessly about the purity of its “student-athletes” while exploiting many of them: The ones who get injured and drop out be­cause their scholarships have been revoked. The ones who will neither graduate nor go pro. The ones who live in terror of accidentally violating some obscure rule in the four-hundred-page NCAA rulebook.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eJoe Nocera and Ben Strauss take us into the inner circle of the NCAA’s fiercest enemies. You’ll meet, among others . . .\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e·Sonny Vaccaro, the charismatic sports marketer who convinced Nike to sign Michael Jordan. Dis­gusted by how the NCAA treated athletes, Vaccaro used his intimate knowledge of its secrets to blow the whistle in a major legal case.\u003cbr\u003e·Ed O’Bannon, the former UCLA basketball star who realized, years after leaving college, that the NCAA was profiting from a video game using his image. His lawsuit led to an unprecedented antitrust ruling.\u003cbr\u003e·Ramogi Huma, the founder of the National Col­lege Players Association, who dared to think that college players should have the same collective bargaining rights as other Americans.\u003cbr\u003e·Andy Schwarz, the controversial economist who looked behind the façade of the NCAA and saw it for what it is: a cartel that violates our core values of free enterprise.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eIndentured \u003c\/i\u003ereveals how these and other renegades, working sometimes in concert and sometimes alone, are fighting for justice in the bare-knuckles world of college sports.\u003c\/p\u003e“Impeccably reported and written, this book puts a bullet in the heart of the country's most morally corrupt institution and will help liberate the thousands who are truly indentured.” \u003cbr\u003e—Buzz Bissinger, author of \u003ci\u003eFriday Night Lights\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“This relentlessly researched, one-stop-shop exposé proves that the NCAA is a hopeless failure posing as the steward of American college athletics.\"\u003cbr\u003e—Frank Deford, \u003ci\u003eSports Illustrated\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A searing indictment of the power and exploitation at the heart of big-money college athletics.... A clarion call for anyone who believes that hard-working people deserve fairness, respect, and a level playing field.” \u003cbr\u003e—Senator Cory Booker\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“This book pulls back the covers on the lives that get chewed up by college sports. It’s beautifully written and compelling.”\u003cbr\u003e—Charles Duhigg, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Power of Habit\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Shocking and stunning. Two of the nation’s finest newspaper writers have delivered an absolute masterpiece.”\u003cbr\u003e—Paul Finebaum, ESPN \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"Painstakingly reported and deftly written, \u003ci\u003eIndentured\u003c\/i\u003e shines the brightest light yet on the hypocrisy and injustice perpetrated by the NCAA.\"\u003cbr\u003e—George Dohrmann, author of \u003ci\u003ePlay Their Hearts Out\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“I think it should be required reading for all sports fans.” \u003cbr\u003e—Kareem Abdul-Jabbar \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“When I was in college, I felt like an indentured servant, exploited and controlled by all the people who were getting rich off my labors and my talent. This book is not only a must-read for college athletes and fans, but a call to action.\" \u003cbr\u003e—Arian Foster, Houston Texans running back \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Joe Nocera and Ben Strauss have long recognized the widespread corruption that plagues big time college sports. These are issues that go beyond the sports pages.”\u003cbr\u003e—Bob Costas\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJoe Nocera\u003c\/b\u003e is a columnist for the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times. \u003c\/i\u003eHis previous books include \u003ci\u003eAll the Devils Are Here \u003c\/i\u003e(with Bethany McLean), \u003ci\u003eGood Guys and Bad Guys\u003c\/i\u003e, and\u003ci\u003e A Piece of the Action. \u003c\/i\u003eDuring his long career in journalism he has won three Gerald Loeb Awards and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. He lives in New York City.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBen Strauss\u003c\/b\u003e is a contributing writer for \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, where he has written extensively about the changing face of college sports. Previously, he worked on Capitol Hill. He lives in Washington, D.C.\u003c\/p\u003eChapter 1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Turncoat\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e It's easy enough to mark the moment when the NCAA began its rise      to power: it was 1951, when an ambitious twenty-nine-year-old      former sportswriter named Walter Byers became its first executive      director. Though founded in 1906, the NCAA had long been a      toothless association comprised of fewer than four hundred      universities with athletic programs. Within a few years after      Byers's arrival, however, the NCAA was striking fear into the      hearts of college athletic officials, coaches, university      presidents, and athletes alike. The essential rules governing      amateurism were written on his watch. He built and nurtured the      enforcement staff that investigated schools accused of breaking      the rules. He invented the term \"student-athlete,\" which he coined      to evade efforts by several states to classify athletes as      employees, and thus allow them to collect workers' compensation if      they were injured. He negotiated television contracts, cut      licensing deals, and helped elevate the NCAA's college basketball      tournament into the commercial spectacle we now know as March      Madness, where fans are not allowed to bring a drink to their      seats that is not from a tournament sponsor, and where even the      ladders that the players climb to cut down the nets at the Final      Four are made by an official NCAA sponsor. He crushed the AAU,      which had held power over amateur athletics before he took over      the NCAA, brushed aside congressional calls for reform, and fought      anyone who stood in his way. Though universities often resented      the NCAA and Byers, they felt they had no choice but to join: by      the time he retired, the NCAA had over a thousand member schools.      Largely forgotten today, Byers was a force of nature in his prime:      secretive, despotic, stubborn, and ruthless. Although he left the      NCAA nearly three decades ago-he died in May 2015, at the age of      ninety-three-his imprint was so strong that the NCAA's culture      today is not very different from the one he imposed on it all      those many years ago.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But while the NCAA didn't change in the intervening years, Byers      did. He eventually turned against his creation, becoming one of      its fiercest critics. Having fought all manner of opponents while      he ran the NCAA, he joined them after he left, calling for the      kinds of radical reforms that would not gain traction for another      two decades.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The original purpose of the NCAA was to devise rules that would      make football less risky. At the turn of the last century,      football was a new game, and an exceedingly dangerous one; during      the 1905 season, 18 athletes died, while nearly 160 others were      seriously injured. Alarmed, President Theodore Roosevelt called      upon the presidents of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton-football      powers in those early days-to fix the problem. The newly formed      NCAA wound up eliminating some of the most hazardous plays-out      went the flying wedge-while legalizing the forward pass. ÒI must      say that football has been greatly improved this year,Ó said      Harvard president Charles William Eliot as the 1906 season came to      an end. ÒIt has less injuries and is much more openly played.Ó\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e By the 1940s, football was by far the most popular college sport,      a position it has never yielded-and a fact that drives the      decision making at most university athletic departments to this      day. In addition to the Ivy League schools, Notre Dame was      nationally known for its football team, as were the Big Ten      schools like Michigan and Ohio State. Then, as now, the athletes      were supposed to be matriculating students who played solely for      the glory of their school. And then, as now, there was plenty of      cheating, with under-the-table payments, loosened academic      standards, no-show jobs, and the like.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Byers, who grew up in Kansas City, had been a good high school      football player, but when he went out for the team as a freshman      at Rice University, the coach told him that, at five foot eight,      he was too small to play in college. He transferred to the      University of Iowa, where he worked on the student paper, only to      drop out a few courses short of graduation to join the army after      Pearl Harbor. Discharged because he was cross-eyed, he went to      work in New York for the news agency that was then called United      Press. In 1947, wanting to return to the Midwest, he took a job in      Chicago with the Big Ten, as an assistant to its commissioner,      Kenneth \"Tug\" Wilson.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In addition to his day job, Wilson was the secretary of the NCAA,      which operated out of a room at the Big Ten's Chicago      headquarters. Unhappy about the rampant cheating, Wilson proposed      that the NCAA establish uniform national rules that all      universities would have to abide by. \"We must set up a policy      whereby a boy will choose a school for its educational value      rather than the school choosing a boy for his athletic ability,\"      he said. In 1948, at the NCAA's annual convention, he helped push      through something called the Purity Code (the name was later      changed to the Sanity Code), which banned off-campus recruiting,      prohibited \"subsidies and inducement\" to athletes, and insisted      that athletes meet a school's \"normal academic requirements\" to be      admitted. It even barred athletic scholarships, which became a      source of contention with other NCAA schools, especially in the      South, which felt they had to award scholarships to catch up with      the high-profile teams in the East and Midwest. Though it still      had no full-time employees, the NCAA was supposed to enforce the      new code.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Sanity Code didn't last long. By 1950, seven schools had      admitted to violating the rules-mainly by giving athletic      scholarships-and essentially dared the NCAA to toss them out,      which was its only recourse. (The NCAA finally approved athletic      scholarships in 1956.) At its convention that year, the schools      that made up the NCAA failed to gain the two-thirds vote necessary      to expel the \"Seven Sinners.\" It was in the aftermath of that      failure that Wilson turned to Byers and put him in charge of the      NCAA, with an initial salary of $11,000.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Byers immediately moved the NCAA headquarters to Kansas City,      which not only got him closer to home, but also created some      necessary distance between the NCAA and the Big Ten, and hired a      secretary. In the summer of 1952, he added an assistant, Wayne      Duke, who would eventually become Big Ten commissioner himself.      \"It was a pretty humble beginning,\" Duke told the journalist Keith      Dunnavant, the author of The Fifty-Year Seduction, a book about      the symbiotic relationship between college football and      television. \"But there was a feeling that we were getting in on      the ground floor of something big.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Byers burned with ambition for his new organization. \"He wanted to      build something meaningful,\" says Chuck Neinas, an early hire who      worked for the NCAA for a decade. \"Walter was an entrepreneur,\"      says Wally Renfro, who spent forty years at the NCAA, beginning in      1972. \"He built the NCAA largely through the force of his personal      will, his charisma, and his genius.\" Jack McCallum, the longtime      Sports Illustrated writer, once wrote that Byers \"made a kingdom      out of what once was a dot on the American sports scene.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Like Byers, the NCAA was secretive, despotic, stubborn, and      ruthless. It also quickly became bureaucratic and rules-driven,      lacking both flexibility and empathy-two qualities Byers also did      not possess-in applying its myriad rules. Byers mistrusted the      press, and so did the NCAA. He was a classic control freak who      played power politics with the best of them, usually maneuvering      behind the scenes. (He rarely spoke at NCAA conventions, for      instance.) NCAA rules were \"bylaws\" that were first proposed as      \"legislation,\" making them sound like actual laws, which of course      they weren't. His managerial style was often likened to that of J.      Edgar Hoover; like Hoover, Byers didn't allow coffee breaks and he      insisted that the desks of NCAA staff members be spotless. (He was      also obsessed with how the Mafia worked; one of his ex-wives once      said that he read a copy of The Godfather so many times that he      had to get a second one.) He had NCAA staffers who sat next to      windows report to him about who came to work late. (\"Discipline is      necessary,\" he later said. \"That is why I ran a tight ship.\") He      used to tape phone calls with conference commissioners and others.      He had no real friends to speak of-just \"acquaintances and      colleagues,\" says Neinas, who often had drinks with him after      work.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Byers was also completely sincere about the importance of      amateurism as the sine qua non of college athletics. \"I      passionately believed NCAA rules could preserve the amateur      collegiate spirit I so much loved as a youth and admired as a      young sports reporter,\" he wrote in his memoir. He abhorred what      he used to call \"the power coaches\"-the ones, like Bobby Knight,      the basketball coach at the University of Indiana, or Joe Paterno,      Penn State's legendary football coach-who dominated their campuses      and could run roughshod over the university president. He viewed      himself as single-handedly restraining the forces of      commercialism, and claimed that as much as he loved college      sports, if he were forced to choose between athletics and      academics, he would choose the latter. He believed that his      enforcement staff, which was so distrusted by most member schools,      was on the side of the angels, rooting out college sports' bad      apples. Yet at the same time, his push to make the NCAA      powerful-and college sports right along with it-had the practical      effect of enabling the power coaches, of shoveling ever more money      into athletics and turning it, year by year, into less of an      avocation and more of a business. The contradictions that are now      so glaring in college sports could also be seen in Walter Byers's      life and career.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The NCAAÕs power, as Byers first constructed it and then fortified      it, stood on two pillars. The first was enforcement. The second      was television.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Having watched the collapse of the Sanity Code, Byers realized      that he had to show that he could punish schools short of kicking      them out of the NCAA. Less than a month after he took the job as      NCAA executive director, he got his first opportunity when the New      York District Attorney's Office picked up two recently graduated      Kentucky basketball players, Alex Groza and Ralph Beard, on      suspicion of point shaving during their college days. After New      York's investigation came to a close six months later-there was no      jail time for the players, though they were banned from      professional basketball-Byers and Bernie H. Moore, the      commissioner of Kentucky's conference, the Southeastern      Conference, agreed that all the other SEC basketball teams should      cancel their games with Kentucky for the 1952-53 season. Byers      then went a step further. He insisted that every school in the      NCAA boycott Kentucky for that season. When Kentucky decided not      to fight the boycott, Byers had what he needed: proof that he      could impose a punishment that would stick.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Within a decade, the NCAA was handing out all gradations of      punishments. A school accused of recruiting violations might be      forbidden from playing in a televised game for a year or two, or      prevented from playing in the postseason. Schools were regularly      put on \"probation.\" Athletes who took money from boosters could      lose their eligibility-and their prospective careers. In severe      cases, coaches could lose their jobs because their programs had      violated the rules. Enforcement gave the NCAA immense power over      universities, athletic departments, coaches, and athletes-and it      wasn't shy about using that power.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e With its enforcement powers, the NCAA under Byers ruled primarily      by fear. Maybe things might have been different if the enforcement      staff-and the NCAA's Committee on Infractions, which made the      final rulings based on the enforcement staff's findings-had      respected rights, shown compassion when circumstances warranted,      and created an ethos that all the participants felt was fair. But      the enforcement process simply wasn't set up that way. Lacking      subpoena power, NCAA investigators gathered information any way      they could, no matter how dubious or conflicted the source, or      underhanded the method. There was no pretense that there were      \"rules of evidence\" as that phrase is commonly understood. And it      was merciless in enforcing rules even when they caused an unjust      outcome.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Investigators would often act on tips-yet the tipster was never      revealed, so that a school had no way to defend itself or question      the informant's motive. Members of the NCAA enforcement staff      didn't tape-record their interviews, and often didn't take notes      until hours or even days later. Athletes or coaches who were      charged with violations were allowed to have a lawyer at some, but      not all, interviews. Nor could they mount any kind of defense that      involved cross-examining witnesses, since that was not part of the      process. The moment a player came under suspicion, he was assumed      to be guilty, and the school had to render him immediately      ineligible or risk forfeiting games it had played using an      \"ineligible\" player. Indeed, because the player was not even a      member of the NCAA-only universities were-he essentially had no      standing to defend himself against any charges that were brought      against him. With his career on the line, the player would be      questioned without knowing why, and would be told that he couldn't      discuss the interrogation without further jeopardizing his      eligibility.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e After the enforcement staff finished its work, the case went      before the NCAA's Committee on Infractions, which met a handful of      times each year and was made up of law professors and other      academics at NCAA member schools. Then, and only then, would the      school or the player be given a chance to defend themselves-not      that it was ever a fair fight. The enforcement staff and the      Committee on Infractions were invariably on friendly terms-dinner      and drinks were not unusual when the committee was in town-and the      enforcement staff had ex parte communications with the committee      that were never afforded school officials. Because of the way the      NCAA put together investigations-with hearsay evidence, interview      notes that were often inaccurate, and unnamed sources-universities      were invariably forced into a he-said, she-said conflict with the      enforcement staff. The Committee on Infractions almost never voted      against the enforcement staff.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e As the NCAA rulebook grew ever larger, eventually ballooning to      over four hundred pages, many people in college sports came to      believe that the NCAA could make a case against any school, at any      time, if it so chose: it was simply impossible to always stay on      the right side of so many rules. This was especially true in the      two big-money sports, football and men's basketball, where the      players often came from disadvantaged backgrounds and lacked the      kind of pocket money that other students on campus took for      granted. Allowing an athlete a free phone call from the coach's      office was impermissible. Giving him money for a ticket back home      to attend his grandmother's funeral was impermissible. Allowing an      athlete free food in between mealtimes was an impermissible      benefit. (This rule was finally changed in 2014, after Shabazz      Napier, the University of Connecticut guard who was the star of      that year's March Madness tournament, complained on national      television that he often went to bed hungry.) In 1978, during a      series of congressional hearings about the NCAA, one of its former      investigators, Brent Clark, said, \"Give me six weeks and I can put      any school in the country on probation.\"","brand":"Portfolio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303404097765,"sku":"NP9780143130550","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780143130550.jpg?v=1767730016","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/indentured-isbn-9780143130550","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}