The System Book Review

The System

Jonathan Decoster

EL 750

University of Nevada, Reno

3/24/2014

Intro

I chose to write my book report on “The System” by Jeff Benedict & Armen Keteyian. “The System” provides readers a view that exposes the inner workings of college football. The authors structured the book so that each chapter tells a different tale on a wide array of controversial topics. The topics covered in the book ranges from tales of sexual assault to the inappropriate tactics of a Universities football recruit welcome committee.

“The System” holds no punches in detailing some of the biggest scandals in college football history. The authors clearly tend to uncover and expose the evil that is in College Football. As a young aspiring coach reading books such as “The System” helps me set my moral compass. Just like in any business where there is a lot of money being involved there usually isn’t much morals being followed. This book provides great insight for future Head Coaches on the headaches that come with running a FBS level football program. In the paper I will talk about a few of the many topics covered in the book and provide an analysis on my perspective for each topic. It is important to note this book was not written by some casual fans. Both authors careers have been spent either journalistically covering sports or conducting studies on athletes.

Money Games

I connected with Towson University being the “sacrificial lamb” because that is exactly what Sun Belt schools are to the Southeastern Conference (SEC) football teams. I played Division 1-A Football at the University Of Louisiana (UL). The university is located in Lafayette at the heart of Cajun country. The Ragin Cajuns as they are so fondly referred to is a member of the Sun Belt conference.

The SEC loves scheduling Sun Belt schools to fill in their non-conference opponent slots. In the chapter Louisiana State University (LSU) football team paid Towson $510,000 to play them. Towson is a member...