The System

The Glory and Scandal of Big-Time College Football

By: Jeff Benedict, Armen Keteyian

Narrated by: Mark Deakins

Length: 17 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

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

A must for College Football fans

If you love college football, you have to read this book. So many perspectives are interwoven in this truly captivating read. Simply awesome!!!

lots of stories about football

while this book has a lot of good stories about football, it doesn't seem to have a cohesive thesis. It's mostly a book of lots of strung together stories that let you draw your own conclusions about guilt and innocence. If you like football it's a fun read, but if you're looking for more of a analysis or expose this is not it.

It's Not Bad

As a huge college football fan (Roll Tide!), I enjoyed the book as a whole, but it just wasn't quite what I needed it to be.

By that, I mean that at times it was boring, to the point I forwarded it a few minutes to get on to something interesting. A LOT of time is spent on one coach in particular, and it's my opinion that there are plenty of other programs and stories out there to be told without focusing so much on one area.

Overall, there is a lot of good information here. The authors are very careful to cite their sources at the end of the book, so I fully believe the book's authenticity.

The whole story

An even account of the glory: what makes FBS CFB great and compelling....and the scandal that makes it and the book juicy. You should love college ball to enjoy this book.

The glory and disgrace of the game in vivid color

An eye opening look at the spectacle that is college football from insiders with front row seats. The utter greed of coaching staffs and supporters willing to game the system through money and sex as much as possible to gain an unfair advantage show a flawed system. The book has some stories of hope though with coaching staffs dedicated to bucking the trend and dedicated to striving for a higher purpose. Certainly will never watch the gams again with the same perspective after this page turned for sure.

ATTENTION parents of prospective college athletes.

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

Would definitely refer this book to any parent or young male athlete going through the recruitment process for college. I myself was recruited and landed a scholarship with a division 1 school so I know firsthand now what I wish this book would have warned me about had it been out before I went on into the experience. Please parents and kids read.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The System?

The details of each investigation and the inside info that was presented.

What about Mark Deakins’s performance did you like?

Vibrant very fitting for this book. Did a great job.

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

Mostly I was shocked how much info they knew and contacts they had there was info reported that only people doing some heavy investigation would find. You can tell a lot of work was put into this book. I recommend it to all parents and students aspiring to be collegiate athletes!

We sadly ended up turning it off.

As a family who is addicted to college football, we were excited about this book. We’ve read several of Jeff’s books and all are top tier.

We shut this book off. I understand it is just stating the facts but it uses too much detail.
It’s is an X rated movie in audio/text form.

Get me and more edited version and I’d be happy to hear about this side of the sport with less graphic detail and language.

Good for BYU and Alabama fans

Most of the stories in this book were concentrated around just a few programs. Not the best book in that I figured there would be more behind it than a few programs and some rather disturbing tales of abuse of girls.