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Varsity Green: A Behind the Scenes Look at Culture and Corruption in College Athletics
In Varsity Green , Mark Yost cuts through clichés and common misconceptions to take a hard-eyed look at the current state of college athletics. He takes readers behind the scenes of the conspicuous and high-revenue business of college sports in order to dissect the enormous television revenues, merchandising rights, bowl game payoffs, sneaker contracts, and endorsement deals that often pay state university coaches more than the college president, or even the governor. Money in college sports is nothing new. But readers will be amazed at the alarming depth and breadth of influence, both financial and otherwise, that college sports has within our culture. Readers will learn how academic institutions capitalize on the success of their athletic programs, and what role sports-based revenues play across campus, from the training room to the science lab. Yost pays particular attention to the climate that big-money athletics has created over the past decade, as both the NCAA's March Madness and the Bowl Championship Series have become multi-billion dollar businesses. This analysis goes well beyond campus, showing how the corrupting influences that drive college athletics today have affected every aspect of youth sports, and have seeped into our communities in ways that we would not otherwise suspect. This book is not only for the players, policymakers, and other insiders who are affected by the changing economics of college athletics; it is a must-read for any sports fan who engages with the NCAA and deserves to see the business behind the game.
209 pages, Hardcover
First published September 23, 2008
About the author
Mark Yost
17 books5 followersMark Yost has been a professional writer for more than 20 years. He worked for The Wall Street Journal full-time for 10 years. He was an editorial page writer in both New York and Brussels, and also wrote for the Journal's Leisure and Arts pages, in the U.S., as well as Europe and Asia.
For the past 10 years, he has been a full-time freelance writer. He still contributes regularly to the Journal's L&A page, primarily writing about the business of sports. He also writes reviews of historical museum exhibits, and book reviews. Yost also writes for the Journal's Sports pages.
His work has also appeared in Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, and Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal. Yost has also written copy for the J. Peterman catalog.
In Spring 2012, Mark Yost completed his first novel, "Soft Target," featuring firefighter Nick Mattera as the hero/protagonist. The book is the first in a four-book series revolving around the North Chicago firefighter and former Marine EOD TEch who runs into al Qaeda agents hellbent on killing Americans, Mexican drug lords determined to protect their turf after a newly elected Libertarian president decides to legalize drugs, and a disgruntled airline passenger who decides to take his anger out on the FAA and the members of the House Transportation Committee.
In addition to being a writer, Mark Yost is a firefighter/paramedic in both Highwood and Lake Bluff, on Chicago's North Shore. He's also a CPR instructor and certified in Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Pediatric Advanced Life Support, International Trauma Life Support, and as a Fire Apparatus Engineer and Hazardous Materials Operations.
Mark Yost is originally from New York, served six years in the U.S. Navy, and lives on the North Shore with his son, George.
For the past 10 years, he has been a full-time freelance writer. He still contributes regularly to the Journal's L&A page, primarily writing about the business of sports. He also writes reviews of historical museum exhibits, and book reviews. Yost also writes for the Journal's Sports pages.
His work has also appeared in Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, and Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal. Yost has also written copy for the J. Peterman catalog.
In Spring 2012, Mark Yost completed his first novel, "Soft Target," featuring firefighter Nick Mattera as the hero/protagonist. The book is the first in a four-book series revolving around the North Chicago firefighter and former Marine EOD TEch who runs into al Qaeda agents hellbent on killing Americans, Mexican drug lords determined to protect their turf after a newly elected Libertarian president decides to legalize drugs, and a disgruntled airline passenger who decides to take his anger out on the FAA and the members of the House Transportation Committee.
In addition to being a writer, Mark Yost is a firefighter/paramedic in both Highwood and Lake Bluff, on Chicago's North Shore. He's also a CPR instructor and certified in Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Pediatric Advanced Life Support, International Trauma Life Support, and as a Fire Apparatus Engineer and Hazardous Materials Operations.
Mark Yost is originally from New York, served six years in the U.S. Navy, and lives on the North Shore with his son, George.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 17, 2017
Way too biased
March 16, 2017
In most states, the highest-paid public employee is not a governor or legislator -- it's a coach, probably football or men's basketball, at a state university. Usually, supporters of that kind of situation point out that the coach brings in enough revenue to his school to justify the large outlay. Whether you accept the proposition or not, the weight of the money involved is one of the many places where "the green" of cash tilts the scales in the supposedly amateur world of college sports. And this green is that which Mark Yost's 2009 book Varsity Green explores.
Although the book's subtitle mentions corruption in college athletics, Green almost has an ambivalence about the subject in some ways. For example, in the area of coaches' salaries, Yost admits that the gap between the best-paid coaches and other tax-funded state employee salaries is large. But, he says, large chunks of that compensation comes in contracts with athletic wear suppliers and other companies. The actual taxpayer share is really not as outsized as the bottom line figure would suggest. He seems to gloss over that these contracts aren't available to folks who do not lead premier college athletic programs and those implications, though.
Yost does describe just how much money flows through an athletic department when a football team makes a postseason bowl game, for example, and notes how well bowl officials themselves are compensated for what seems like less than arduous work. He notes several other areas where the massive amounts of cash involved can seriously threaten the supposedly amateur nature of college sports and perhaps the futures of the young men and women at the heart of all the fuss: the athletes. But Varsity Green's incomplete focus and its rather easygoing attitude towards attribution and footnoting weaken its potential lesson to college sport consumers or participants.
Original available here.
Although the book's subtitle mentions corruption in college athletics, Green almost has an ambivalence about the subject in some ways. For example, in the area of coaches' salaries, Yost admits that the gap between the best-paid coaches and other tax-funded state employee salaries is large. But, he says, large chunks of that compensation comes in contracts with athletic wear suppliers and other companies. The actual taxpayer share is really not as outsized as the bottom line figure would suggest. He seems to gloss over that these contracts aren't available to folks who do not lead premier college athletic programs and those implications, though.
Yost does describe just how much money flows through an athletic department when a football team makes a postseason bowl game, for example, and notes how well bowl officials themselves are compensated for what seems like less than arduous work. He notes several other areas where the massive amounts of cash involved can seriously threaten the supposedly amateur nature of college sports and perhaps the futures of the young men and women at the heart of all the fuss: the athletes. But Varsity Green's incomplete focus and its rather easygoing attitude towards attribution and footnoting weaken its potential lesson to college sport consumers or participants.
Original available here.
July 24, 2011
I'm not really sure why I'm giving this book two whole stars, as it was shockingly disappointing and, in some parts, downright offensive. Yost clearly has an ax to grind and, while he's done his research, the bias he shows so blatantly throughout is distracting to say the least. A sample of these problems includes his obvious admiration for Notre Dame, his hatred of privileged families, likening Myles Brand to Tony Soprano, and his assumption that the majority of athletes are black and poor. To be sure, at some points it almost seems like he thinks of "African-American" and "impoverished" as interchangeable terms.
Even more troubling is that he focuses almost exclusively on schools from the SEC, ACC, Pac 12, Big East, Big 10, and Big 12 conferences. While it's obvious why he does this, the rampant extrapolation he utilizes to characterize all schools and all athletic programs as equivalent to these giants is disingenuous at best and outright lying at worst. I found some legitimate research throughout which I hope to utilize in the future, but, overall, this tone and quality seemed more apropos to a guest columnist on ESPN.com and NOT a Stanford University Press text.
Even more troubling is that he focuses almost exclusively on schools from the SEC, ACC, Pac 12, Big East, Big 10, and Big 12 conferences. While it's obvious why he does this, the rampant extrapolation he utilizes to characterize all schools and all athletic programs as equivalent to these giants is disingenuous at best and outright lying at worst. I found some legitimate research throughout which I hope to utilize in the future, but, overall, this tone and quality seemed more apropos to a guest columnist on ESPN.com and NOT a Stanford University Press text.
November 13, 2012
The setting of the story is the whole college athletics of universities or colleges. Mark Yost starts out and describes in-depth how everything is revolving around money and how the student-athlete is the “endorsement product”. I believe this is true and this book characterizes how we all get played in college athletics. I have only gone through half the book. It’s been informative but also down grading on how I should view schools for my athletic ability and how most people don't care about academics.
The book basically tells how athletics were corrupt in the beginning and how it will never stop. It teaches me about the dangers of colleges and universities, That’s why I am giving it a three star.
The book basically tells how athletics were corrupt in the beginning and how it will never stop. It teaches me about the dangers of colleges and universities, That’s why I am giving it a three star.
August 22, 2010
3.5 stars
This books contains a lot of fuzzy math, and Yost doesn't really focus on supporting his thesis - that the college athletics culture is corrupt and bad. Basically, he spends much of the book defending the money spend on stadiums and coaches as a sound financial investment. He then devotes a few pages to the apparent injustice being done to student athletes. I'm not convinced.
Nevertheless, he includes a lot of interesting data and anecdotes.
This books contains a lot of fuzzy math, and Yost doesn't really focus on supporting his thesis - that the college athletics culture is corrupt and bad. Basically, he spends much of the book defending the money spend on stadiums and coaches as a sound financial investment. He then devotes a few pages to the apparent injustice being done to student athletes. I'm not convinced.
Nevertheless, he includes a lot of interesting data and anecdotes.
June 30, 2010
"Booo!!!! I heard the author on NPR. The book sounded so interesting, but the guy seems to have written the whole book without ever deciding what point(s) he was trying to make. Other strikes against him: he cites the same "expert" in almost every chapter and the editing is the worst I've seen. Not just minor typos, but in a couple of places entire paragraphs were repeated. Booo, I say."
January 16, 2012
I was surprised how the bowls really work. They take advantage of the schools, there CEOs are making a killing. Mark Yost tells it like it is.
January 24, 2016
A highly readable account of how the NCAA is structured to take 18 year old kids, and use their talent to support a multibillion dollar industry.
December 18, 2016
Doesn't provide any new insight in addition to what's been widely reported.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews