"The Shame of College Sports"

There's a long piece in the Atlantic and available online that some of you might be interested in. It's by Taylor Branch (Wikipedia entry). Here's the introductory blurb:

A litany of scandals in recent years have made the corruption of college sports constant front-page news. We profess outrage each time we learn that yet another student-athlete has been taking money under the table. But the real scandal is the very structure of college sports, wherein student-athletes generate billions of dollars for universities and private companies while earning nothing for themselves. Here, a leading civil-rights historian makes the case for paying college athletes—and reveals how a spate of lawsuits working their way through the courts could destroy the NCAA.

Here is the rest.

I haven't gotten to this one yet, so this is partly a note to self, and I can't say for sure how good it will be. But based on a shorter NYT article about the piece and the author, I'm betting it'll be worth your time if you're interested in this aspect of sports.

(h/t: KK | pic. source: TB's homepage)

P.S. You can read and listen to the Frank Deford piece from which the blurb above is taken. It aired last month.