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Bowled Over: Big-Time College Football from the Sixties to the BCS Era
In this compellingly argued and deeply personal book, respected sports historian Michael Oriard--who was himself a former second-team All-American at Notre Dame--explores a wide range of trends that have changed the face of big-time college football and transformed the role of the student-athlete.
Oriard considers such issues as the politicization of football in the 1960s and the implications of the integration of college football. The heart of the book examines a handful of decisions by the NCAA in the early seventies--to make freshmen eligible to play, to lower admission standards, and, most critically, to replace four-year athletic scholarships with one-year renewable scholarships--that helped transform student-athletes into athlete-students and turned the college game into a virtual farm league for professional football.
Oriard then traces the subsequent history of the sport as it has tried to grapple with the fundamental contradiction of college football as both extracurricular activity and multi-billion-dollar mass entertainment. The relentless necessity to pursue revenue, Oriard argues, undermines attempts to maintain academic standards, and it fosters a football culture in which athletes are both excessively entitled and exploited.
As a former college football player, Oriard brings a unique perspective to his topic, and his sympathies are always with the players and for the game. This original and compelling study will interest everyone concerned about the future of college football.
Oriard considers such issues as the politicization of football in the 1960s and the implications of the integration of college football. The heart of the book examines a handful of decisions by the NCAA in the early seventies--to make freshmen eligible to play, to lower admission standards, and, most critically, to replace four-year athletic scholarships with one-year renewable scholarships--that helped transform student-athletes into athlete-students and turned the college game into a virtual farm league for professional football.
Oriard then traces the subsequent history of the sport as it has tried to grapple with the fundamental contradiction of college football as both extracurricular activity and multi-billion-dollar mass entertainment. The relentless necessity to pursue revenue, Oriard argues, undermines attempts to maintain academic standards, and it fosters a football culture in which athletes are both excessively entitled and exploited.
As a former college football player, Oriard brings a unique perspective to his topic, and his sympathies are always with the players and for the game. This original and compelling study will interest everyone concerned about the future of college football.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 16, 2011
Former Notre Dame gridiron star and current Oregon State associate dean Michael Oriard's approach is sound: He links the student-athlete upheavals of the 60s (particularly by African-Americans chafing against the rigid rules of "Big Daddy" coaches in the mold of Paul Bryant and Darrell Royal) to profound restructuring by the NCAA (the end of 4-year "no-cut" scholarships in favor of 1-year renewable scholarships, the increasing marginalization of smaller schools by the "big 64" (or so) of high-revenue (if not necessarily high-profit) programs, etc.). The first half of the book, which concerns those upheavals, is stylishly written. Oriard marshals newspaper accounts from a host of sources, and his talents as a literary critic are put on full display as he analyzes athlete-coach clashes at Wyoming, Oregon State, Indiana, and elsewhere, as well as the desultory and haphazard integration of the SEC. The interlude, "The NCAA Goes Pro," does a fine job of explaining how the first part of the book will complement the second. What happens from there is difficult to explain: Oriard's discussion of the development of "big-time, big-money" sports is good enough--the material on the development of increasingly elaborate academic resource centers for athletes is especially interesting--but he struggles to articulate a compelling argument for how the NCAA should be reformed, if at all. Instead, he wastes the last chapter ("Thinking about Reform") listing various proposals for change without casting his support behind any of them.
December 16, 2021
I went into this book thinking it to be a historical account of College Football "from the 60s to the BCA era" as the subtitle reads. But that is NOT what this book is. Instead, this book is more of a historically based critique of College football and the rat-race that 119 (at the time of publishing) college athletic departments partake in.
Oriard provides insight into the system he participated in as a football player at Notre Dame. His unashamed revealing (and bashing) of the ludicrous antics athletic departments have willingly chased for decades on end makes for a compelling read.
The first half of the book explores college football in the time of desegregation, but unfortunately I feel that it fails to fully set up and tie into the latter half of the book.
Overall, I liked the read and appreciated Oriard's insight, but have found better, more focused and insightful books on this topic elsewhere.
Oriard provides insight into the system he participated in as a football player at Notre Dame. His unashamed revealing (and bashing) of the ludicrous antics athletic departments have willingly chased for decades on end makes for a compelling read.
The first half of the book explores college football in the time of desegregation, but unfortunately I feel that it fails to fully set up and tie into the latter half of the book.
Overall, I liked the read and appreciated Oriard's insight, but have found better, more focused and insightful books on this topic elsewhere.
January 20, 2010
The latest in a lengthy line of Michael Oriard football books, Bowled Over covers the transformations that, since ca. 1960, have exacerbated the already ambiguous position of collegiate football since it’s founding days; that of awkwardly inhabiting a territory between academic amateurism and commercialized professionalism. It’s a compelling story concerning the innumerable contradictions within the sport. He articulates, for instance, how “pampering” and “exploitation” of the athlete-student could/should be seen as the same thing. The fact that coaches are now bestowed CEOesque salaries and the programs bring in many millions from commercialized realms while the (recruited) players only gain (mostly) free admittance to the university, with increasingly less opportunity to actually utilize the university as an educational venue is just one of many disparities.
Another primary issue involves whether the role of a football is a mere adjunct to or main attribute of a given university and its national reputation. Some programs seem to have blossomed because of their football prowess (the author’s alma mater in Indiana, the University of Miami) and others have withered on the vine without Big Football (any number of still-provincial programs). Some schools are mostly unaffected with a deemphasized program (Tulane, the Ivies) or by eliminating the sport altogether (Chicago, hopefully the school at which I teach) and some were on a solid path regardless of the team’s success (the oft-mentioned “Flutie Factor” turns out to be statistically dubious at BC). It’s a complex issue and when he turns to much needed reforms – or clarifications about the sport as profession or just college component – there are apparently no agreeable solutions even amongst seemingly innocuous suggestions, much less dramatic proposals. Oriard covers much ground (I would say “like Reggie Bush” but I’m not that lame…) with a very balanced, scholarly production.
In structure, the book is necessarily broken up into two parts: one focusing mostly on the final years of racial integration, the other articulating the sundry ramifications of the 1972-73 acts inaugurating the one-year scholarship and freshman eligibility. I say necessarily because the paucity of hard financial data outlining how Big Time college ball evolved into something like a quasi-NFL didn’t really exist until the last couple of decades and, presumably, there haven’t been any explicitly segregated programs since “Ole Miss,” LSU, and Georgia entered the twentieth century in 1972.
My only issue is that the portion about student unrest and team integration doesn’t really, if you will, integrate seamlessly with the second part. Yes, the discussions about player exploitation mostly revolves around black athletes, many from the lower echelons of US economic and educational society (they’re the latest equivalent of the sons of immigrant coal miners and factory laborers of decades past, though the author convincingly argues that the earlier group weren’t subjected to the same academic alienation that the current system promotes). Yes the data in Part Two covers graduation rates amongst black athletes as part of many other numerical and revenue-related factors. What I felt, however, is that the two parts read differently – as if they might better yield two separate books. Not that I think Oriard should have produced yet another book that would be all but ignored by the Goodreads.com community, but despite the excellent writing, I didn’t think Part One formed a solid basis for or reciprocal pairing with Part Two. They’re like different species within the same genus if I understood anything Steven Jay Gould ever wrote. Regardless, it’s a great book overall that any college football enthusiast or anti-college football professor should enjoy.
Another primary issue involves whether the role of a football is a mere adjunct to or main attribute of a given university and its national reputation. Some programs seem to have blossomed because of their football prowess (the author’s alma mater in Indiana, the University of Miami) and others have withered on the vine without Big Football (any number of still-provincial programs). Some schools are mostly unaffected with a deemphasized program (Tulane, the Ivies) or by eliminating the sport altogether (Chicago, hopefully the school at which I teach) and some were on a solid path regardless of the team’s success (the oft-mentioned “Flutie Factor” turns out to be statistically dubious at BC). It’s a complex issue and when he turns to much needed reforms – or clarifications about the sport as profession or just college component – there are apparently no agreeable solutions even amongst seemingly innocuous suggestions, much less dramatic proposals. Oriard covers much ground (I would say “like Reggie Bush” but I’m not that lame…) with a very balanced, scholarly production.
In structure, the book is necessarily broken up into two parts: one focusing mostly on the final years of racial integration, the other articulating the sundry ramifications of the 1972-73 acts inaugurating the one-year scholarship and freshman eligibility. I say necessarily because the paucity of hard financial data outlining how Big Time college ball evolved into something like a quasi-NFL didn’t really exist until the last couple of decades and, presumably, there haven’t been any explicitly segregated programs since “Ole Miss,” LSU, and Georgia entered the twentieth century in 1972.
My only issue is that the portion about student unrest and team integration doesn’t really, if you will, integrate seamlessly with the second part. Yes, the discussions about player exploitation mostly revolves around black athletes, many from the lower echelons of US economic and educational society (they’re the latest equivalent of the sons of immigrant coal miners and factory laborers of decades past, though the author convincingly argues that the earlier group weren’t subjected to the same academic alienation that the current system promotes). Yes the data in Part Two covers graduation rates amongst black athletes as part of many other numerical and revenue-related factors. What I felt, however, is that the two parts read differently – as if they might better yield two separate books. Not that I think Oriard should have produced yet another book that would be all but ignored by the Goodreads.com community, but despite the excellent writing, I didn’t think Part One formed a solid basis for or reciprocal pairing with Part Two. They’re like different species within the same genus if I understood anything Steven Jay Gould ever wrote. Regardless, it’s a great book overall that any college football enthusiast or anti-college football professor should enjoy.
January 9, 2010
A phenomenal text that delves into the political utilization of football players as a stereotype, the racial discord of the 60s and 70s as displayed in isolated incidents across the country, and the commercialization of the sport in the decades since. Oriard not only draws on his own experience as a walk-on at Notre Dame but also mountains of studies and anecdotes from teams in a myriad of conferences.
I'd recommend it to fans of the sport, academics in American universities, and critics of the system alike. I fully intend on utilizing it in future research.
I'd recommend it to fans of the sport, academics in American universities, and critics of the system alike. I fully intend on utilizing it in future research.
July 2, 2012
I love this book - it's probably my favorite of all the books we've read for EPE 684, which was unexpected. I went into it believing that I was going to be bored to death by the history of college football and how cool the bowls are, but Oriard focuses heavily on the sociopolitical side of things. I've actually been inspired by this book to do further research on the perception of exploitation versus opportunity for African American student-athletes for my final paper in the course.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews