Season of Saturdays: A History of College Football in 14 Games

by Michael Weinreb

From an award-winning writer, journalist, and college football an entertaining cultural history that highlights the key moments, games, personalities, and scandals of the popular and controversial American pastime.

Every Saturday in the fall, countless college students, alumni, and sports fans wake up filled with a particular kind of hope and excitement, ready for their team’s game. Half of them finish the day in joyous celebration, and the other half in abject depression, but all of them are ever ready to do it over again the next weekend.

College football is one of the unifying cornerstones of American culture. Since the first game in 1869, football has grown from a stratified offshoot of rugby to a ubiquitous part of our national identity. Today, as college conferences fracture and grow, amateur athlete status is called into question, and a playoff system threatens to replace big-money bowl games, we’re in the midst of the most dramatic transitional period in the history of the sport.

Michael Weinreb’s Season of Saturdays examines the evolution of college football, from the moral and ethical quandaries that informed its past to the fascinating changes that may affect its future. Since its nascent days on elite Ivy League campuses, college football has inspired both school spirit and controversy. Weinreb explores the game’s inherent violence, its early seeds of big-business greed, and its impact on institutions of higher learning. Filtered through the stories of such iconic coaches as Woody Hayes and Joe Paterno and Steve Spurrier, Season of Saturdays also celebrates some of the greatest games of all time while exploring their larger significance. Part popular history, part memoir—and always uniquely American— Season of Saturdays is both a look back at how the sport became so fraught with problems, and a look ahead at how the sport might survive another century.

Genres: Sports, Football, Nonfiction, History

272 pages, Hardcover

First published August 19, 2014

About the author

Michael Weinreb is the author of Bigger Than the Game: Bo, Boz, the Punky QB and How the '80s Created the Modern Athlete. His previous book, The Kings of New York (paperback title: Game of Kings), won the Quill Award as the Best Sports Book of 2007, was named one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly, Amazon.com and The Christian Science Monitor, and was a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice.

He is also the author of Girl Boy Etc., a short-story collection. He has written for The New York Times, ESPN, GQ, Grantland and Sports on Earth. His work has also been anthologized in the Best American Sports Writing collection. His book Season of Saturdays: A History of College Football in 14 Games, was published in Fall 2014 by Scribner and was named one of the best books the year by Newsweek and Quartz.

Reviews

[Allen Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thoughtful and often witty set of essays taking an incisive look at some of the history, culture, and glory of college football, which is, for many (myself included), truly America’s greatest (and most quintessentially American) sport. The author does not shy away from examining the darker aspects of the sport—especially its violence and its unholy relationships with both money and academia. Yes, it’s no secret that college football has some warts. But, like the author, I am compelled to love it anyway. I greatly enjoyed this book, but found myself wishing it were longer… much like football season itself! 4 stars.

[Aaron Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

College football fills a very specific sports-related need for tens of millions of Americans like myself, and you couldn't ask for a better introduction on why exactly this particular jumble of athleticism, loyalty, egalitarianism, hierarchy, tradition, greed, and (oh yeah) academics exerts the hold it does on so many people for the back third of the calendar year. Weinreb mixes in a bit of straightforward game recap, but the majority of the book is the good stuff that both hardcore fans and casual browsers will enjoy - how college football relates to the ideals of meritocracy, capitalism, heritage, entertainment, and all the other interesting parts of modern American society. It resembles nothing so much as a collection of longform articles from Grantland (which coincidentally was sadly shuttered by ESPN as I was reading this), and as it happens several of the chapters first originated there.

My own hometown of Austin is the largest in the country without a pro team in any sport, because even in down years (the Longhorns are currently finding ever-more innovative ways to get blown out) our team manages to mostly satisfy the sporting desires of a decently-sized American city. While the fact that we're surrounded by other cities with pro teams partially explains this, there's something special about the culture, the tailgating, the pageantry, the atmosphere of college sports that makes the prospect of getting a Big League team seem unnecessary. What's so special about college football?

Weinreb grew up a Penn State fan, so he gets how important college football can be to a smaller town and to the personal identity of the fans (he doesn't pull any punches regarding the Sandusky tragedy). Simply put: to the truly dedicated, college football makes a good reference point for just about everything in life, a handy narrative skeleton to attach all the messy bits of life to. As an illustration of this, here's the list of topics he covers in his chapter on UT's national championship game in 2006: Reggie Bush, Fresno State, The Twilight Zone, Todd Blackledge, the 1983 NFL draft, Tecmo Bowl, EA Sports NCAA Football, Pete Carroll, Matt Leinart, Vince Young, The Iron Bowl, Jonathan Franzen, and Tim Tebow. This unsurprisingly means that some of the pieces lean more towards pop culture than pure gameplay analysis, but it's still possible to learn a tremendous amount about the sport through the games he picks:

1. (1896) Rutgers 6, Princeton 4.
2. (1913) Notre Dame 35, Army 13.
3. (1962) Minnesota 21, UCLA 3.
4. (1966) Notre Dame 10, Michigan State 10.
5. (1969) Texas 15, Arkansas 14.
6. (1969) Michigan 24, Ohio State 12.
7. (1979) Alabama 14, Penn State 7 (Sugar Bowl).
8. (1984) Miami 31, Nebraska 30 (Orange Bowl).
9. (1985) Miami 58, Notre Dame 7.
10. (2006) Texas 41, USC 38 (Rose Bowl).
11. (2007) Boise State 43, Oklahoma 42 (Fiesta Bowl).
12. (2008) Texas Tech 39, Texas 33.
13. (2013) Auburn 34, Alabama 28 (Iron Bowl).
14. (1987) Penn State 14, Miami 10 (Fiesta Bowl).

As originally published, the book covered up to the end of the 2013 season, but thankfully the paperback version is updated for the 2014 season, where as a lagniappe Weinreb discusses two of the first games of the new College Football Playoff system:
- (2015) Oregon 59, Florida State 20 (Rose Bowl, CFP semifinal).
- (2015) Ohio State 42, Alabama 35 (Sugar Bowl, CFP semifinal).

Like many fans, myself included, Weinreb has mixed feelings about the new playoff system. While being understanding and supportive of its mission to finally Settle the Argument, he's amused and not at all surprised that the arcane and opaque selection process resolved absolutely nothing (not that I'm unbiased, but the glaring omission of the Big 12 teams was absurd), even while acknowledging why so many wanted it to happen. He covers those games even more briefly than he did before, and after a gentle dismissal of the distemperate harrumphings of bow-tied conservative goofball George Will, he closes on a perfect encapsulation of why appreciation of the sport runs so deep in so many people:

"But in order to be a college football fan, you have to embrace the beauty of the system. In order to be a college football fan, you have to take a step beyond simplicity and recognize that our sports, like our politics, like our lives, are fraught with complexities that are essentially irresolvable. If you can't handle those opposing ideas - the wondrousness and the absurdity of it all - you're probably in the wrong damned country, anyway."

[Mark Poons · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe it's me, but I just had a really hard time getting into this book. And I LOVE college football, so I was really disappointed I did not like it more. I did enjoy some of it, I think my problem was in the way it was written. It's just a hodgepodge of random stories about the history of college football and the authors own experiences. Maybe I just need a more linear structure. I did like the idea however that one of the things that makes college football great is all the reasons people hate it.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been wanting to read Season of Saturdays for quite some time. Perhaps it was because of my love of American college football. Perhaps it was my love of history. It was both. Michael Weinreb does take you through the history of the game, however; the real focus is on the college game's conflict between its amateur status and capitalism. Today I would state that due to NIL agreements and the transfer portal that FBS football players are really professional athletes. However, in 2014 , we had not quite reached that point. But we were very close. Read Weinreb's book to learn how the big college football programs skirted the issue to maintain their amateur status.

[Ryan Splenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is more than just a history of college football in 14 games. This book is the explanation of my soul! Weinreb perfectly explains the passion of every die hard college football fan like me (while additionally pointing out that most of the hero-worshipping and cult status that it has gained over the years is quite ridiculous). I present two quotes from this book that perfectly explain ME:

"There is a thing that happens to me when I'm watching certain (in my case ALL) college football games, and it is driven by a feeling I cannot explain. I didn't even know what it looked like until my best friend...pointed it out to me: They told me I became so intense that I frightened them a little....It was, they said, as if they could no longer recognize me; it was, they said, almost like I became another person. I don't know if I've grown to become an irascible man, but in those moments, I become an irascible child all over again. In those moments...it feels like a kind of relief" (p. 54).

"I mean, I KNOW it's crazy, and I KNOW it doesn't make rational sense. But there's a strange beauty about returning, every Saturday, to the places where we came of age: It allows us, as adults, to feel like true believers, even if that no longer means what we thought it did when we were young" (p. 239).

I type these quotes with tears in my eyes. No joke. This book explains ME!

[Kate Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This started out as a solid 4-star for me and kind of drifted into 3-star territory about halfway through, for reasons that are not entirely Michael Weinreb's fault. This book came out in 2014, just before the beginning of the college playoff, when people were still questioning the Big Ten's relevance (a conversation that promptly ended when Ohio State won the first playoff championship later that season). Those are just two examples; so much of what Weinreb references here - from those issues to coaching personalities to the trajectory of individual teams - is so obsolete now. This actually lends credence to his main point that the sport moves quickly and that its arc bends toward change, but it still made for a bit of a distracting reading experience, though his writing style is lovely and engaging.

Also, the dude just hates Michigan, and while I appreciate his honest disclosure of that fact, his thoughts on my alma mater did make me roll my eyes a bit. (Other parts were quite accurate. We are an annoying fanbase and we are arrogant for largely no reason, or at least no reason we can point to that happened within the last 14 (!) years. But so are the Penn Staters, so.)

[Tom Gase · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun book to read on the history of college football in 14 games, or chapters really. I thought this book would be a critique on 14 different games, and it was, to a certain extent. An enjoyable read, but I felt it kind of goes all over the place a little too much and has more sidenotes on the bottom of the page than a Bill Simmons column. That being said, very well researched and written well, just not what I was expecting. The author's Penn State bias is evident, but it's not too bad. Really like the chapters on the USC/Texas game and the Boise State vs. Oklahoma game along with the Nebraska vs. Miami game and Tom Osborne. Good stuff and a quick read.

[Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice collection of essays (in the form of game vignettes) on of all the things those of us who love college football love about it, and all the things, including hidden physical damage and the ridiculous pretense of amateurism, that many of us don't.

[Nick Dye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Massively fun read

[Marc Brueggemann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Weinreb surprised me with this one. I'm more into the NFL and professional football, but seeing this got me curious. This book is part history and part-memoir where he uses 14 games in college football history, discusses the impact of those games on the sport, as well as giving his personal impressions as a result of growing up in State College, Pennsylvania, rooting for Penn State. There were points though that didn't make much sense to me. For example, when he talks about Tom Osborn and his coaching at Nebraska and Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow and their Christian faith. He talks about Osborn going for the win against the Miami Hurricanes in the Orange Bowl for the national championship. Then, he just blasts Osborn because, Osborn is a Christian and the decision to go for it makes his morals unfit for that decision, which didn't make sense to me. Then he talks about Tebow, he clearly has a problem with Tebow expressing his faith both in college and when he became quarterback for the Broncos in 2011. He associates Tebow with Fox News? What does that have to do with the topic he is talking about? The time between college and the pros is real life indeed, but you never let go of your inner child. Even when you go into the NFL, you never forget that once you were a kid, and many kids wanted the same dreams you have. Just because you're in the NFL now doesn't you shouldn't have fun, which is kind of ironic when fans of college football literally think that students are gods when they throw a ball while studying at their university. Some college fans take school sports too seriously. Anyway, I digress. He brings many of the issues that the sport has been through, as well as showing the hypocrisy of competition between schools, the blurred lines of amateur student-athletes and professional athletes, as well as between education and sport as a whole.

[Michael Elkon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up for $6 at Half-Price Books, expecting to hate read it. Weinreb is a Penn State fan who is part of the modern trend that sportswriters don't worry about letting their personal feelings come across in their writing. Weinreb specifically dislikes Michigan (my alma mater), telling a story about how there was an arrogant jerk in his class growing up whose parents went to Michigan and who helped form his view of the "Michigan Man." I immediately picked out a factual mistake in the Michigan chapter regarding Fielding Yost (Yost was not the coach at the time of an incident on which Weinreb dwells) and thought that the rest of the book would annoy me, but I ended up enjoying it. It was a light read that I could knock out without concentrating too hard in the evening.

Weinreb does a nice job of telling personal stories regarding the games that made him a fan. The stories of the 1978 Sugar Bowl (a devastating experience for Weinreb as Penn State lost to Alabama) and the 1986 Fiesta Bowl (an upset win for Penn State) are well-told. That said, I can't remember many of Weinreb's specific points, so I can't say that the book had a major impact on me. I have a recollection of enjoying the book as I was reading it and thinking that there were some interesting observations in it, but two months later, I can't remember what those observations were.

[Jacob Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weinreb paints a poignant portrait of the American college football landscape. This book is equal parts history lesson, social commentary, humor, and unadulterated personal nostalgia. In the first few pages Weinreb mentions that if his readers did not attend a state school, or grew up in a professional sports market, they might be missing the "point" of college football. He spends the next several hundred trying to explain that point. I'm not sure if those readers understand anymore by the end, but as someone who grew up in a college town, attended a university focused on their football program, and a fan of pageantry, I can say that Weinreb's words gave voice to sentiment I've been experiencing my whole life.

[Josh Trice · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is REALLY good in telling the story of College Football. I enjoyed the narrative of how we go to where we are in modern day college football. I wish the book had stuck more to a historical narrative than it did, but it doesn't detract too much from the overall enjoyment of the book. I love College Football! If you are like me, then you will enjoy this book!

Important personal note: However, the personal perspective the author gives, akin to some form of idolatrous affair with the sport, leaves a looming presence in the reading of this book. I couldn't help but think about unhealthy some of us our (myself included) in our obsession with sports. In the grand scheme of life, sports should never be as important as we make them out to be.

[Hugh Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Weinreb splits the history of college football up through 2014 into 14 topics, each represented by a key game. He basically takes a deep dive on some topic relating to the game’s era, not necessarily describing that game itself. For example, the chapter represented by the 1962 Rose Bowl only mentions the game to say that Ohio State voted against playing in it. In practice, that chapter is about Woody Hayes and his violent temper and reactionary politics. As a Penn State fan, he strongly dislikes Alabama and Notre Dame, so his football worldview is probably representative of most fans, and that is a good thing. I recommend this book to anyone who loves college football.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very nice collection of essays that attempts to piece together the nonsensical world of college football through 14 important games. I liked Mr. Weinberg’s writing but I did lose interest towards the end. Once I was able to get back into it, I enjoyed the ending, despite the Kick Six being such a prominent part of the final chapter. I still bear some emotional scared from that game.

Final Grade: B

[Conor Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a compelling concept for a book that the author cannot execute. Weinreb does not write particularly well, and while inserting personal experience into the narrative can make a work more textured and insightful, he veers too far into navel-gazing. That said, college football is interesting enough on its own to carry this book to three stars.

[Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've gotten more into football this past year, so I enjoyed reading this book which covered a lot of the history of college football. The book was written 10 years ago, so it didn't have anything about how the playoff system has worked or the impact of NIL money. I'd love to read an updated version with this information. There were parts that were really funny--I liked the author's voice.

[Andrew Beckwith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The parts I liked were that it went full detail on each game that changed college football, but it never focused on anything else besides the games.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great read, with one glaring dilemma from the perspective of this reader--an overwrought emphasis on footnotes.

[Ashwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think I really got the hullaballoo about college football before this book. This author's enthusiasm is infectious, and he is a stupidly good writer to boot.

[Ben Torno · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Noll's 'Turning Points," but make it college football. A little dated, but an interesting read with the new post-NIL, 12-team-playoff perspective.

[Budd Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's a lesson about jumping to conclusions when it comes to books.

"Season of Saturdays" looks rather straight-forward in its cover description. Michael Weinreb must have picked out the most important 14 games in college football history, and then thoroughly reviewed them in the book.

That's not quite what we have here. Luckily, it's probably better this way.

Weinreb has bigger things in mind. He essentially points to important trends in the game's history, and then picks out milestone games to prove his point. There isn't much play-by-play involved in the game descriptions. In fact, sometimes the game is beside the point, and that gets into a lively discussion about the sport.

For example, the Jan. 1, 1962 Rose Bowl matched Minnesota and UCLA. The game really didn't matter in one sense. What mattered is that Ohio State was the Big Ten champion that year, and passed up the chance to participate in the game. You can imagine how that went over with then-coach Woody Hayes. That's not happening now, not with the economics involved.

It is all part of the argument that has been part of college football for generations, and stays with us to this day. Should institutions of higher learning be involved in this level of athletics? Is it keeping with the mission statement of the college or university? Probably not, especially considering the fact that most schools lose money on athletics, and many have broken rules involving academic integrity in order to win football games.

Yet Weinred still finds the sport itself thrilling. He's feeling a little guilty about that, but not too much. It's partly because football serves a great connection between a university, the students, alumni and the surrounding city/town. Weinred grew up around Penn State, so he knows something about that subject. It's also because the games can be so darn exciting.

There are plenty of interesting aspects to the story told here. A subplot is the entire "Who is No. 1?" argument that has been a part of the game since, well, forever. One is the 1984 Orange Bowl featuring Nebraska and Miami. You might remember that Nebraska came within a point of tying the game in the final seconds. A tie, still possible in those days, would have given Nebraska the national championships in the polls. But Tom Osborne went for the win, and failed. It remains a fascinating decision, just like Notre Dame's action to accept the tie against Michigan State in 1966..

Then there's the curious case of Texas-Arkansas in 1969, when President Nixon announced that the winner of the game would be the nation's best team - even though Penn State was just as undefeated as the other two teams. Weinreb hints that politics might have had a roll in that move; there was an election to be won in 1972, after all.

The book goes in other directions from there. The author points to the Miami teams of the 1980s as ones that did whatever it wanted on and off the field, breaking the mold in that area. Then there's the rise of the passing game involving coaches such as Mike Leach and Steve Spurrier, who used the pass to set up the run instead of the other way around.

Finally, there's the unpredictable nature of the game, best shown by Auburn-Alabama last year. Alabama's coach was/is Nick Saban, master of taking as many variables out of the game as possible and perhaps the best college football coach ever. Even he couldn't compensate for the moment when an Auburn player ran a missed field goal back more than 100 yards for a game-winning touchdown on the final play of the game. Those moments, and there have been a lot of them, have made the sport special.

Weinred has clearly done his homework, and he never comes off as an apologist for the game. It's short but generally to the point. You might not like the personal stories about Penn State, but they work pretty well here. "Season of Saturdays" is a worthwhile read as we get ready for another season.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book takes a unique approach to telling the history of college football. The author chose 14 (I think) games from the sport's entire history, selected because in some way they represented some moment in the evolution, or devolution, of the sport. He describes each game by way of various tangents or undercurrents occurring on the team or on campus or in society that were somehow manifested in the game itself. These histories are enmeshed among stories of the author's personal relationship with college football, and specifically with his favorite team, Penn State, in mind.

It mud the noted that not all the games mentioned here were the typical turning points fans of the game will think of. You do have the first ever game, Rutgers v. Princeton in 1869, of course, as that is important. And of course Notre Dame makes some appearances. But Weinreb moves on from there to select games which might include important plays which spawned the modernizing of the game; involved important players or coaches which became some of the biggest characters in the sport; or other even upsets or close games which affected how that season's champion (and the subsequent seasons') was selected.

The part I found most refreshing about his voice is that Weinreb does not shy away from admitting that the sport itself, and his fanatical love for it and his team, makes no sense. He knows it is ridiculous. The game has been corrupt, he explains, in one way or another since it first became popular in the early 1900's. He does not sugarcoat the fact that players receive preferential treatment, recruiting is a game of who-can-get-away-with-what and injecting tv contract money into the sport has made the very concept of amateur athletes tenuous at best and hypocritical at worst. He even explains how biases and reputations helped decide national championships throughout the century, in America's only sport in which (for 99% of it's history) voters decided who is champion. But I found his reporting and research to be topnotch, his characterizations of the main players very approachable. His writing is heartfelt; he does love this imperfect game. He point is to try to explain, as a rational, educated man - why?

It could be mildly distracting how he writes each chapter as a collection of tangents on the theme each game represents. It took me a chapter or two to get used to this. But as you read along, especially if you already know a little bit about the history of the game, as I do, it became easier to follow.

I found this to be a very entertaining book, overall, and I learned a lot from it. Weinreb does a good job taking us from 1869 to the present day in the history of the game, while also making us look in the mirror and admit that college football, imperfect at best and predatory at worst, can bring out some of the best and worst parts of our society. This book adds to the colorful expanse of literature on the college game and helps us understand just a little more why it means so much to us, warts and all.

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating:
4 ½ of 5 stars (excellent) – rounded to 5 for Goodreads and Amazon

Review:
College football is a uniquely American institution that can bring out the best and worst of everyone involved – players, coaches, schools, students and fans, just to name a few. The moral and ethical questions that can be raised by this passion are examined in this excellent book on the sport by Michael Weinreb. He covers the history of the sport from its beginnings as an Ivy League activity to today’s system with a 4 team playoff in 14 chapters, each representing a Saturday, and each one titled with a game that symbolized the state of the game for that era.

Weinreb writes each chapter with a good balance of factual research, thoughts for the reader to contemplate and wonderful stories on some of the greatest moments of the game. He writes each chapter in a manner that hard-core fans will enjoy because of some of the memories and strategic coaching mentioned, but at the same time, casual fans will also enjoy it because there isn’t a lot of complicated talk about plays and formations so they will be able to follow along as well. As a fan in between these two extremes, I enjoyed the book for the history lessons of the early game as well as the references to the games that I still remember today and how they have impacted the sport as a whole.

The book is also written in a manner that when Weinreb expresses an opinion or emotion, it is not judgmental, but will make the reader stop and think. He does this many times during the book. To illustrate this, in the chapter titled “Texas 41, USC 38” (the 2006 National Championship game) he ends each section with a thought provoking statement and will express his thoughts by saying that the statement will either “bother certain people more than it bothers me” (Reggie Bush considered a bust) or “this bothers me more than it bothers certain people” (that college football is a prelude to the “real thing” [NFL football] on Sunday afternoons).

This type of writing, prevalent throughout the book, made it an enjoyable read and one that I would certainly recommend to any college football fan.

I wish to thank NetGalley for providing an advance reading copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Did I skim?
No.

Pace of the book:
The book is a fast-paced read as each of the 14 chapters representing one week of the season is broken into segments that make reading each chapter easier.

Do I recommend?
All college football fans, from casual to hard-core will enjoy this book. Also, readers who are looking to read about why the sport is so popular with all age groups and how much a team can become part of a town’s or campus’s psyche will find this book one that will address many of those questions.

Book Format Read:
E-book (Kindle)

[Paul Pessolano · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Seasons of Saturdays” by Michael Weinreb, published by Scribner.

Category – Sports/Football Publication Date – August 19, 2014

The sub-title for this book is, “A History of College Football in 14 Games”.

The author, his prejudices aside, takes what he believes are the most influential 14 College Football Games and explores the games themselves and their impact on the game. He further looks into the key figures in the games and how they affected College Football. He also looks into the myths surrounding the game, who first utilized the forward pass (not Notre Dame).

The colleges that play a prominent role in the shaping of modern day college football are listed as, Notre Dame, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Ohio State, Alabama, and a few more of recent history.

He also explores the impact college coaches had on the game with the likes of Woody Hayes, Knute Rockne, Joe Paterno, Alonzo Stagg, Bear Bryant, and a few more.

The book also details what may be wrong with college football today and possible remedies. There is the ongoing debate on a college football playoff (this year), the paying of student athletes, and the violence of the game which has come under great scrutiny over the last year.

The book provides a nice overview of college football, past and present, and will provide the football enthusiast with not only a good book to read but will provide some thought into the game and how it is played and funded.

[Mike Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Above average book that takes you through a lot of the history of college football. The title is a little misleading. The author picks 14 games, one for each chapter, which I assumed would lead to him talking mostly about these games. That is not the case at all, as Weinreb, uses each chapter to write a number of short essays. The essays all revolve around the same subject that the chapter is about. It is not a bad thing, but keep in mind this is not a chronological timeline. The author's jumping around, sometimes is a little frustrating, but overall it is not hard to understand what he is trying to convey with each chapter. I must admit, sometimes I wished he talked about the games listed as the chapter header, but sometimes I enjoy his side essay more. There is a slight bias towards Penn St as Weinreb lived in Happy Valley growing up, and attended Penn St. This leads to Penn St being brought up in the book more than any other school, but it does give a nice backdrop of where the author is coming from and his biases. Overall a nice College Football book, that blends history with present day.

[William]

This was an enjoyable read that really does a good job getting at what those of us who have loved college football, as I once did, saw in the institution--the tradition, the pageantry, the underdog stories. I especially liked the chapter about Boise State and other such metaphoric statute of liberty play moments. However, the chapter about the University of Miami teams from the 1980s and early '90s is, like the ESPN documentary "The U," absolute bunk. For the record, "racism" does not justify obviously unethical behavior (read this 1994 Sports Illustrated article for details about the crimes perpetrated by the 'Canes:
http://www.si.com/college-football/20... ) and the fact that the powers that be in college football adhered to a belief in an unrealistic and unattainable ideal of sportsmanship and amateurism does not justify stomping all over any such concept of those ideas. If this sounds like a rant, it's only because it is. But the rest of the book is great.

[Scott Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5 stars) A good, fast read for the college football fan. It looks at the score of key games, but then tries to go into further detail about key themes, players, events that surround aspects of that game. That the author grew up a Penn State fan reflects the understanding of the pull of college football, warts and all. Perhaps it is telling that the last chapter focuses on perhaps the greatest win in Penn State football history, with the chapter then addressing the darkest chapter in school history. It can offer a little bit of everything for most fan bases. Was most interested to learn some of the past history, and there could have been more to that part. The more modern accounts were more a rehash of what I already knew, but for someone who may not follow the sport as much, this could be a good intro read. Best as a beach read or a read during the lull in the season.

(7/17/2023) No change in the rating. Still a fast read. Good primer for college football, even if it is a little dated. (Pre-playoff).

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Must confess, I picked primarily because there was a chapter about Boise State's first Fiesta Bowl appearance and I was curious what a non-BSU fan would say. But the overall theme of the book was the evolution of college football and its uneasy relationship with the 'college' part of it. It IS a business closely associated and in a co-dependent relationship with academic institutions. Makes for an uncomfortable alliance that doesn't always work out right. The book discusses the violent nature of football and why that endears itself to fans; the craziness of fandom--why do we love football; and the reaction when your team/coach/school lets you down (i.e., Miami, Ohio State, Penn State).

It does have the occasional swear word, but he captures some of the excitement and beauty of of college football and why we love it so much.

[Avi · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5ish.

Good book, easy read about the history of college football and the author's connection to it. I appreciated his personal touches and experience as a Penn State fan and think that added to the story. His description of Michigan fans was (for better or for worse) accurate, even if it wasn't the most flattering.

I think I would've enjoyed it more had the book been more of a personal experience and used history to contextualize it. He did this in some chapters, and while it was interesting to hear about UChicago and Harvard, etc., they're not super relevant when it comes to big time college football. Still, I appreciated that Weinreb really gets the why of big time college football.

As he says:
"Football ties the community together; football is such a powerful and meaningful force that it literally leads us into the streets to embrace each other."