Big-Time Sports in American Universities

This book expands on the argument that spectator sports, despite their problems, have become a central function of American universities.

Charles T. Clotfelter (Author)

9781108421126, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 February 2019

398 pages, 18 b/w illus. 13 tables
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.7 cm, 0.69 kg

'Charles T. Clotfelter's new book shows in details and data how college sports have become center stage in American universities of the twenty-first century. His chapters are exciting and his analyses are balanced and fair. Finally we have a book by a leading scholar who knows both academics and athletics. This leaves us with a great basis for reform.' John Thelin, University of Kentucky, author of Games Colleges Play: Scandal and Reform in Intercollegiate Athletics

For almost a century, big-time college athletics has been a wildly popular but consistently problematic part of American higher education. The challenges it poses to traditional academic values have been recognized from the start, but they have grown more ominous in recent decades, as cable television has become ubiquitous, commercial opportunities have proliferated, and athletic budgets have ballooned. In the second edition of his influential book Big-Time Sports in American Universities, Clotfelter continues to examine the role of athletics in American universities, building on his argument that commercial sports have become a core function of the universities that engage in them. Drawing on recent scandals on large-scale college campuses and updates on several high-profile court cases, Clotfelter brings clear economic analysis to the variety of problems that sports raise for university and public policy, providing the basis for the continuation of constructive conversations about the value of big-time sports in higher education.

Part I. Commercial Sports as a University Function: 1. Strange bedfellows
2. Priorities
3. The bigness of 'big time'
Part II. The Uses of Big-Time College Sports: 4. Consumer product, mass obsession
5. Commercial enterprise
6. Institution builder
7. Beacon for campus culture
Part III. Reckoning: 8. Ends and means
9. Prospects for reform
Appendices.

Subject Areas: Organizational theory & behaviour [KJU], Political economy [KCP], Economics of industrial organisation [KCD], Economics [KC], Sociology: sport & leisure [JHBS], Cultural studies [JFC]