Unpaid Professionals: Commercialism and Conflict in Big-Time College Sports

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Unpaid Professionals: Commercialism and Conflict in Big-Time College Sports

by Andrew Zimbalist

Princeton University Press * 1999 * 252 pages * $24.00

Reviewed by George C. Leef

Turn on your television set almost any urday afternoon from September to March and the chances are pretty good that you will be able to find a college football or basketball game. You'll see a lot of color and excitement. Dazzling athletic feats performed in a state-of the-art facility before thousands of cheering fans.

That, of course, is the bright face that college sports always wants people to see. There is, however, a darker side that is rarely seen except by those …