Many books have been written on the "evils" of commercialism in college sport, and the hypocrisy of payments to athletes from alumni and other sources outside the university. Almost no attention, however, has been given to the way that the National Collegiate Athletic Association has embraced professionalism through its athletic scholarship policy. Because of this gap in the historical record, the NCAA is often cast as an embattled defender of amateurism, rather than as the architect of a nationwide "money-laundering" scheme. Sack and Staurowsky show that the NCAA formally abandoned amateurism in the 1950s and passed rules in subsequent years that literally transformed scholarship athletes into university employees. In addition, by purposefully fashioning an amateur mythology to mask the reality of this employer-employee relationship, the NCAA has done a disservice to student-athletes and to higher education. A major subtheme is that women, such as those who created the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), opposed this hypocrisy, but lacked the power to sustain an alternative model. After tracing the evolution of college athletes into professional entertainers, and the harmful effects it has caused, the authors propose an alternative approach that places college sport on a firm educational foundation and defend the rights of both male and female college athletes. This is a provocative analysis for anyone interested in college sports in America and its subversion of traditional educational and amateur principles.

A well-constructed and reasoned debunking of the mythology of amateurism in for-profit NCAA athleticsThe NCAA and the Exploitation of College Profit-Athletes provides a comprehensive historical, sociological, legal, financial, and managerial argument for the reclassification of profit-athletes as employees. The authors cut through the institutional doublespeak of approved benefits, cost-of-attendance stipends, or "name, image, likeness" (NIL) collectives and provide evidence that the NCAA's amateurism has been a collusive, exploitative, and racialized "pay for play" scheme that disproportionately affects Black profit-athletes. They offer a forward-thinking structure in which individual labor contracts, or a potential collective bargaining agreement, address profit-athlete compensation and working conditions.

Women and Sport: Continuing a Journey of Liberation and Celebration focuses on women winning access to the playing field as well as the front office in sport. Readers will gain an understanding of how women have been involved in sport and physical activity, how they have struggled for widespread recognition and legitimacy in the eyes of many, and how they continue to carve out their role in shaping sport as we know it today and as it will be in the future. Edited by renowned expert Ellen J. Staurowsky, widely accepted as an authority on college athlete rights and Title IX and gender equity, Women and Sport facilitates interdisciplinary, research-based discussion by providing a detailed account of contributions from women in sport. The text features a foreword by sport executive Donna Orender and 15 chapters-written by leading authorities in women and gender studies in sport-that are grouped into four parts: * Women's Sport in Context: Connecting Past and Present reminds readers of the historical events and influences that shape today's landscape. * Strong Girls, Strong Women recognizes gender differences and what it means to create equitable access to sport opportunities. * Women, Sport, and Social Location explores how various characteristics and qualities may affect sport participation and opportunities. * Women in the Sport Industry offers a rare and contemporary approach to examining women in sport leadership, management, and media. Women and Sport was developed with the intent of filling a need by serving as a primary textbook and separates itself from other titles by providing an abundance of instructor ancillary materials that assist in class preparations. Pedagogical aids such as objectives, glossary terms, discussion questions, and learning activities in each chapter facilitate student understanding of the material covered. Sidebars throughout the text enable the contributors to provide thought-provoking content on topics such as media coverage of female athletes, how female athletes are used in marketing campaigns, and whether athletic competitions should continue to be segregated by sex. Readers will discover the impact of these topics in many areas of society, from biomedical to psychosocial and historical. Through its engaging content, Women and Sport: Continuing a Journey of Liberation and Celebration serves as a launching pad for discussions that will shape society's ongoing conversation about what it means to be a female athlete or a woman working in sport. It is an ideal textbook for adoption in interdisciplinary courses that focus on women and gender studies in sport.