The Cost of Winning

An unapologetic insider's account of the corruption and greed within college athletics.

College sports may have begun as a benign attraction, but it has since morphed into quasi-professional athletic leagues that exploit higher education, taxpayers, and students. A foremost expert in ethics in intercollegiate athletics, Dr. Gerald Gurney spent his career fighting the greed, collusion, and corruption among college presidents, athletic directors, and coaches, playing a pivotal role in the movement for athlete well-being and academic integrity.

The Cost of Winning: An Insider's Perspective on Exploitation and Greed in College Sports is Dr. Gurney's candid memoir, covering his 40-plus years working directly with athletes as they struggled to achieve the dream of a meaningful college degree and a chance at a professional athletic career. He saw firsthand the exploitation of these athletes and the blatant disregard for their education, even as universities touted the educational and character-building values of intercollegiate athletics. Dr. Gurney reveals how academic fraud works at too many NCAA Division I institutions, the lengths individuals and entire programs will go to in order to win, and the unsustainable path in athletic spending.

More than a memoir, The Cost of Winning is an honest, brave, and fascinating account of some of the most remarkable triumphs and disasters in college sports history--an unapologetic depiction of the well-sheltered inner workings of major college athletic programs and prospects for change.