The System

The Glory and Scandal of Big-Time College Football

By: Jeff Benedict, Armen Keteyian

Narrated by: Mark Deakins

AN EXPLOSIVE AND REVELATORY PORTRAIT REPORTED FROM DEEP BEHIND THE SCENES OF BIG-TIME NCAA COLLEGE FOOTBALL: THE PASSION, THE THRILLING ACTION—AND THE SHOCKING REALITIES THAT LIE BENEATH THIS COLOSSAL, MULTIBILLION-DOLLAR BUSINESS

College football has never been more popular - or more chaotic. Millions fill 100,000-seat stadiums every Saturday; tens of millions more watch on television every weekend. The 2013 Discover BCS National Championship game between Notre Dame and Alabama had a viewership of 26.4 million people, second only to the Super Bowl. Billions of dollars from television deals now flow into the game; the average budget for a top-ten team is $80 million; top coaches make more than $3 million a year; the highest paid, more than $5 million.

But behind this glittering success are darker truths: “athlete-students” working essentially full-time jobs with no share in the oceans of money; players who often don’t graduate and end their careers with broken bodies; “janitors” who clean up player misconduct; football “hostesses” willing to do whatever it takes to land a top recruit; seven-figure black box recruiting slush funds. And this: Despite the millions of dollars pouring into the game, 90 percent of major athletic departments still lose money. Yet schools remain caught up in an ever-escalating “arms race” - at the expense of academic scholarships, facilities and faculty.

Celebrated investigative journalists Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian were granted unprecedented access during the 2012 season to programs at the highest levels across the country at a time of convulsive change in college football. Through dogged reporting, they explored every nook and cranny of this high-powered machine, and reveal how it operates from the inside out. The result: the system through the eyes of athletic directors and coaches, high-flying boosters and high-profile TV stars, five-star recruits and tireless NCAA investigators and the kids on whom the whole vast enterprise depends.

Both a celebration of the power and pageantry of NCAA football and a groundbreaking, thought-provoking critique of its excesses, The System is the definitive book on the college game.

©2013 Jeff Benedict, Armen Keteyian (P)2013 Random House

Even for those who are not college football fans.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I never attended a power football school. I am not a great college football fan. Still I enjoyed this book. If you want to know of the problems facing all big time programs this is the book. If you want to know about the role of money and recruiting abuses this is your book. If you want facts demonstrating the hubris and complicity of the NCAA is the sport than this is your book. You can see the role of money in the sport that leads to both good and bad outcomes. Football success not only pays for other sports but it leads to increased alumni donations and greater student enrollments. But the NCAA is also about its money. It's about March Madness and selling game rights. As much as it is claimed the NCAA is run by its member colleges it's all about its money. You want examples? Read the book. Want to know the secret of a successful college football program? The coach. The coach then recruits players. To recruit players you need to invest in facilities. To make money you have to invest money but only about 20% of Division I schools are in the black.

Want to see scandals enumerated? They go through the usual recruiting violations, sex and academic scandals. How to avoid these scandals is also delineated. But it also shows how football is also the way out of the cycle of failure for many students. Even as urban recruits have gang associations and youth criminal records that they then bring with them as recruits to college campuses that adds the risk of crime and scandal to these programs there are many for whom academic scholarships are the way out of the cycle of poverty. College athletics are big business and Division I college football is huge business. This book dissects this business and does so without being boring, or peachy,

some programs disturbing, others commendable

What made the experience of listening to The System the most enjoyable?

I was impressed with the level of research done to back up the conclusions drawn and found some programs such as BYU and their support structures impressive, and others downright deplorable, Tennessee etc. Coaches seem to be either tyrannical dictators, Mike Leach, no thanks... not for me or my boys, while others seem to be truly invested in the athletes and or institution, Saban at Alabama, Bronco now at U of VA.

What did you like best about this story?

Research

Have you listened to any of Mark Deakins’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

no

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The story of Kyle Van Noy at BYU was fascinating and downright inspirational while the system at Tennessee was very disturbing. The sketch drawn of Mike Leach's character is one that leaves a lot to be desired. Big money has really corrupted both individuals and some institutions.

The System

I enjoyed listening to “The System” and how well narrated the book was overall. Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian give you an in-depth and inside look at college football and the high price and high stakes for success on and off the field. I look forward to a follow-up book as the money in collegiate athletics has grown exponentially since 2013.

Insightful But Uneven

The System is a book that makes it immediately clear that a significant amount of research was put into telling stories that illustrate the world around college football and how the world operates. Benedict and Keteyian use stories from the world of college football to give the reader an accurate picture of how football operates and how players, coaches, administration and just average students get caught up and used by the system in both negative and beneficial ways. These stories excellently outline the scandals that have engulfed schools like Tennessee and their brief employment of Lane Kiffin, and Mike Leach and the end of his illustrious tenure at Texas Tech, exploring the cause and reaction of figures in the football world and what aspects have come back to negatively affect those who had previously relied on them. The stories also do well to illustrate the culture of football, exploring how a school’s identity and pride can be caught up in the sport and how it can affect a school in negative ways such as paying a coach more than any other public employee in the state. Benedict and Keteyian do an excellent job of showing how these actions that should be strange are actually considered normal because of the culture around football in college. And perhaps most importantly, the authors do an excellent job of illustrating and describing how players get caught up and used by this system, and how it affects them.
That all being said, the book still has flaws, for although it is largely billed as an inside look at the glory but also the problems of college football, there are times in which this book tells stories about players and coaches and administrators that glamorize the system, leading to a strange conflict in which it will appear at one moment to be critiquing the system of college athletics, and the very next chapter it may seem to be praising college athletics and many of the aspects that have been previously described as negative. There will be times the book seems to criticize the spending on coaches or the attitude of coaches, only to turn around and celebrate such figures as Nick Saban, Bronco Mendenhall, and Leach. This shift in tone can lead to inconsistency on exactly what the aim for the book is and what the goal of the authors exactly was. Nonetheless, this is an interesting book that provides insights into how the system operates and how it can lead to both glory and notoriety, as well as infamy and disreputation. An excellent listen for all those interested in the nitty gritty of the sport, and in general a great work by these two authors.

mike c

great insight into college football. highly recommend for any football fan or person intrigued by collegiate sports.

Some Interesting Info, but Felt Abit Sporadic

This book was interesting if you are a college football fan, but it was not what I was expecting. Overall there did not seem to be a master storyline or timeline or narrative that tied together each chapter. Instead, it felt like some disjointed information that left the reader wondering why certain stories were included and wondering how it was tied to other chapters except that it pertains to the game of football. Admittedly, my expectations were high when I read the title. I don't think the book truly was a cohesive wholistic evaluation of the college football system. I wish I could rate this book higher. Perhaps an updated version should be produced that ties what is happening today back to what was happening then in some interconnected way?

Gripping Inside Look at an Industry to Itself

If you have any interest in college football, you should read "The System," a spectacular and sobering look at College Football, as a Sport and a Huge Multi-Billion$ Business, that:

Explores each of more than a dozen hot and/or intriguing topics in college football;

By way of an illustrative story to humanize it, much like the Michael Lewis method;

Written by respected and gritty reporters who were granted a year of behind-scenes access and ability to interview coaches, ADs, athletes, academic administration, boosters, students, prosecutors, NCAA; and, who

Crafted an astounding collage of The System to give the reader both good and bad, so you can form your own opinions, conclusions and, if nothing else, see the sport in a different light.

I highly recommend it.

Very interesting behind the scenes look!

If you could sum up The System in three words, what would they be?

Somebody's Getting Paid!

Which scene was your favorite?

Recruitment of Kyle Van Noy and the "walk-on" Ziggy Ansah.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

There seems to be a lot of connections to BYU and more than its share of the chapters. It actually seems to paint them as the only team out there with a honest program. Some of the information about College Coaches doesn't surprise me, but the amounts of money they are talking about for football vs the rest of the University is unbelievable. Its no wonder the students want to get paid!

Any additional comments?

I really liked the way each chapter looks at a different aspect of the system. It was very well written and included lots of great behind the scenes stories about Kevin Leach situation at Texas Tech and Saban's decision to coach at Alabama.

Interested on college athletics

Great resource with real stories of college athletics for anyone interested in this field. Worth the read.

Great book with tons of insight

I really enjoyed the book and all the different angles discussed. I now look at college football differently because of it. If you want to keep an idyllic view of college football, steer clear.