------------------------------------ COLLEGE SPORTS INC. The Athletic Department vs the University by Murray Sperber Henry Holt, $19.95, 416 [353] pages ------------------------------------ WIN AT ANY COST The Sell Out [sic] of College Athletics by Francis X. Dealy, Jr. Birch Lane, $18.95, 240 [215] pages ------------------------------------ Reviewed by Tony L. Hill Most members of academia believe that the athletic programs at their schools and in general are a bit of a drain on their institutions. It is widely believed that some coaches, athletic directors, and players exploit the university to some degree. In "College Sports Inc.," Murray Sperber forcefully debunks these myths: The state of intercollegiate athletics is much worse than believed. Sperber acutely demonstrates that athletics are a cancer on the halls of ivy, and growing. The book is lively and interesting, and should be on the required reading lists of all who have a hand in academic policymaking. The first third of the book is an all too grotesque demonstration of how the semi-professional athletic programs at most institutions use their schools as money laundries. The vast amounts of greed and mismanagement are mind-boggling. Sperber, an English professor at Indiana University (a campus he admits has one of the worst offending athletic programs), carefully draws parallels between athletic department conduct and that which is expected from academic units. His central thesis is that college athletic departments are no longer integral with their host institutions, but are commercial entertainment businesses. Sperber alleges that athletic directors see themselves as CEOs, and give themselves a chief executive's high pay and benefits, but retire from a CEO's normal responsibility of keeping the books in the black. If the first chapters aren't enough of an indictment of college athletics, Sperber shows how coaches keep a step ahead of the law by changing schools when necessary. He exposes the coaches' many illicit sources of income, such as selling tickets issued to them, payola from shoe companies, and running profit- making summer camps largely at university expense. He tells that even assistant coaches are usually able to euchre the school into giving them hefty compensation. The athletic department keeps athletes under its thumb with athletic scholarships. By controlling the purse, some coaches force players to work fifty hours a week. The very existence of athletic scholarships, it is argued, drain resources that could be used to train America's future leaders and professionals. Sperber buries the idea that student-athletes are students at all. He details every scam to keep the least literate athletes above the already laughable thresholds for academic eligibility established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); every scam for making illegal payments to athletes; the embarrassingly low graduation rates of athletes. (Memphis State, a basketball powerhouse, graduated only four players in a fourteen year period.) The most atrocious tale in the book is how the NCAA executed a hostile takeover of women's athletics, under the guise of protecting men's athletics from the "threat" posed by Title IX. In 1982, the NCAA all but bribed schools to drop out of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). Since abrogating the AIAW, the percentage of female coaches of women's teams dropped from 92 to 53 percent, and the percentage of female women's athletic directors dropped from 95 to 14 percent. The book illustrates well that the NCAA is an organization out of the control of its members. Sperber shows how college presidents have tried to take the organization back over the past decade but were thwarted by athletic directors whose personal interests are too entrenched in the present system. Another move to take over the NCAA is currently being formulated by the Big Ten and Pacific Ten, but Sperber speculates that the most profitable sports schools ("jock factories"), driven by their own greed, will soon bolt from the association and run their own tournaments. This will cause the collapse of the NCAA, and the schools left on the outside will retrench athletics and return to having bona fide students playing in truly amateur sports. It may be argued that the Sperber's book is one-sided, but anyone who would do so should take caution: Members of the college sports establishment deliver the most damning revelations in the quotes inserted on almost every other page. The audacity of these people is incredible. It would indeed be difficult for a dispassionate observer to take their side. The only problem detected in the book, which is exceptionally well-written, is that there is a great deal of repitition. One question should be posed. Sperber accuses the athletic programs of keeping the revenue from sports and making the universities absorb their losses. Did Sperber, like most professors, bill the direct expenses in writing his book (postage, copying, toll calls, etc.) to the University while accruing the royalties personally? And won't he get a raise for having gotten a book published? Francis Dealy's "Win at Any Cost" is less compelling, but has certain appealing aspects that the Sperber book lacks. Dealy outlines the history of the NCAA, which was formed at the behest of President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905 after a football player died. Dealy makes the death of a Loyola Marymount basketball player the focus of his book. Hank Gathers had a heart condition which required medication. His coach allegedly pressured doctors to lower his dosage, which he felt impeded Gathers's performance. Since he didn't have them on any scholarships, the doctors refused. The coach then pressured Gathers to ease up on the drug. Gathers died in a game shortly before the team was to play in the 1990 national championship. Dealy focuses less on the nuts and bolts and finances of college sports and more on social issues surrounding athletics. In addition to the NCAA and coaches and athletic directors, he fingers CBS and St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch. He claims not only that the network's billion dollar contract with the NCAA gives it enormous leverage in college sports, but that Anheuser- Busch uses college basketball as a medium to sell drinking to underage fans. This is a rather specious claim, because there is no evidence that the college basketball championship appeals more to the under 21 crowd than pro games, which are equally inundated with beer ads. Despite Sperber and Dealy not having access to each others' work, they arrive at many of the same conclusions. Dealy concludes with a litany of reforms for college sports. More than Sperber, he believes that reform is possible within the present structure of the NCAA. Both agree that reform is inevitable and will affect all sports consumers and members of college communities. People in those groups should be aware of the issues discussed in these books. *** Tony Hill, a student in political science at the University of Minnesota, has tutored athletes and other students.