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Learning Matters, Inc., 6 E 3 2n d Street, 8 t h Floor, New York, NY, 10016 212-725-7000pbs.org/merrow

“Big Time Losers” Transcript NARRATOR: NEYLAND STADIUM, KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE. MORE THAN 100,000 FANS ON HAND, AS THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE NARRATOR: VOLUNTEERS FACED RIVAL FLORIDA IN A NATIONALLY TELEVISED GAME. NARRATOR: COLLEGE SPORTS IS BIGGER THAN EVER. DEFORD: It's so seductive. It's so much a part of who we are. In a way it's a kind of identity that's very American. If you were one little town and somebody else is the other little town, how did you compete with each other? It’s not who's got the better school but who has the better football team. And it starts there. NARRATOR: THIS GAME WOULD GO DOWN TO THE WIRE. WITH 13 SECONDS LEFT ON THE CLOCK TENNESSEE TRAILED BY TWO. VERN LUNDQUIST MADE THE CALL FOR CBS. NARRATOR: FINAL SCORE, TENNESSEE 30, FLORIDA, 28. BUT FOR THE VOLUNTEERS THERE WAS ANOTHER SET OF NUMBERS TO CELEBRATE. THE 2 MILLION DOLLARS IN REVENUE GENERATED BY EVERY HOME GAME. EDWARDS: Sports at the collegiate level is a multi billion dollar business. Coaches are making money. Schools are making money. The conferences are making money, everybody makes money. NARRATOR: CHAMPIONSHIP BOWL GAMES ARE THE JACKPOT OF COLLEGE SPORTS. EARNING SOME TEAMS AS MUCH AS 14 AND A HALF MILLION DOLLARS IN A SINGLE NIGHT.

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EDWARDS: If you're going to be a top football school, those kids who are brought in there are not brought in there because they have Phi Beta Kappa potential. They're brought in there because they have All America Heisman Trophy potential. And that becomes the focus of their lives on that campus. It's about sports. NARRATOR: TODAY ELITE COLLEGE BASKETBALL TEAMS SPEND WEEKS ON THE ROAD, FILLING THE AIRWAVES WITH MORE THAN 5,000 GAMES A YEAR. NARRATOR: SOME PLAYER:S SEEN MORE OFTEN ON TV THAN IN THEIR CLASSES. DEFORD: When you devote so much time to any activity, there's no way in the world that you could be a devoted student. You simply haven't got the time. NARRATOR: FOR MANY ATHLETES, COLLEGE IS NOT ABOUT ACADEMICS. WHITE: The main reason why I went to college was to play college football. All my efforts and time pretty much went to that. If it was watch a film for a tough game like Florida or Alabama I'd probably watch that film instead of reading that book. NARRATOR: FRED WHITE WAS A STANDOUT DEFENSIVE BACK AT TENNESSEE. WHITE I kind of figured out the system of classes, which ones were harder, which ones were a little easier. To me, to be able to say a class was easy or hard I would go to the first class and I'd go to that class up until the first test. And if that first test, I could pass it without studying, that was going to be an easy class for me. CARLSON: What comes easy for them what comes natural? They've excelled in football. That's what's been their meal ticket, that's what's got them the notoriety and the national acclaim. The academic end is not always the easy part.

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NARRATOR: ACADEMIC COUNSELORS LIKE TENNESSEE'S DAN CARLSON SEE MANY ATHLETES PUT SPORTS AHEAD OF STUDIES. CARLSON There's a culture in major college sports, there's something wrong that sometimes they perceive as a weakness, to be a good student. And truly, I mean, it is very much a culture. And lots of times their peers try and bring 'em down because they don't want somebody to be doing better than they are in the classroom, and that there's something socially unacceptable about being a good student athlete. NARRATOR: BUT IS IT FAIR TO ONLY BLAME ATHLETES? EDWARDS: The coaches tell the athlete you're doing okay, you're making progress, you're still moving towards your degree. Then of course when eligibility is over, they find out that he's an academic first semester junior, he doesn't have any money to continue his education, he doesn't have a professional contract, and they want him off campus, out of sight and out of mind, because we have another generation of prospects coming in here and we don't want any losers around. NARRATOR: AND INSTITUTIONS CUT CORNERS, INSTITUTIONS CHEAT. DEFORD: There is a lack of integrity in many, many places. And ... and when it's a question of are we going to win ... or are we going to have integrity ... then ….we’re doing to win. BRAND :That's daydreaming. The media skews the enterprise by looking at the most highly visible entertainment part of intercollegiate athletics ... and fails to see how pervasive it is and how much it adds to the experience of young men and women. NARRATOR: MYLES BRAND HEADS THE NCAA. THE GOVERNING BODY THAT OVERSEES SOME 350,000 COLLEGE ATHLETES IN DOZENS OF SPORTS. MYLES BRAND And what we want to do is make sure that the vast majority of them have a ... an educational experience and take full

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advantage of the opportunities of the college and the university ... one that is productive in terms of their learning. And by and large it works. NARRATOR: WHO ARE THE WINNERS AND LOSERS IN COLLEGE SPORTS? AND WHAT HAPPENS TO THE PLAYER:S WHEN THE CHEERING STOPS. NARRATOR: FRIDAY NIGHT IN BOWLING GREEN, KENTUCKY. GAME TIME FOR THE LADY HILLTOPPERS OF WESTERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY. NARRATOR: ON THE FIELD FOR WESTERN KENTUCKY WAS SENIOR ALLISON NELLIS . SHE CAME HERE ON AN ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIP. ALISON As an 18 year old coming to Western definitely my priority was soccer. I played soccer my whole life and that's pretty much all I knew and academics was always second to soccer. NARRATOR: ALLISON'S PRIORITIES QUICKLY LANDED HER IN TROUBLE. HER GRADES DROPPED. JASON NEIDELL WAS ALLISON'S COACH. NIDEL Allison did have a ... a ... a one semester that was ... was pretty poor. I know she got kicked in the butt from me ... I know he got kicked in the butt from her family too. NARRATOR: ALLISON WAS NEW TO COLLEGE, UNACCUSTOMED TO THE FREEDOM. ALISON: It was hard ... we have plenty of time to do whatever we want ... we're not on a time limit or anything ... and we have more time to play around ... which we usually end up sleeping or doing something we probably shouldn't be ... NARRATOR: SOCCER WAS PART OF THE SOLUTION. ALISON We're always on a time limit. We always have practice ... we have school ... always on a time limit. In soccer you have to really be dedicated and that helps you do well in school.

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NEIDELL They have to manage their time better and they have to be more disciplined. The demands that we place on their time are great. NARRATOR: ALLISON AND HER TEAMMATES DENARRATOR:TE ABOUT 16 HOURS A WEEK TO SOCCER. NEIDEL There's a lot more than just, , teaching the game of soccer ... hopefully they take away some discipline and teamwork and ... and leadership and ... and a ... a lot of issues about self pride and self worth ... and ... and hopefully we're able to ... to show that to them and help them grow. NARRATOR: IT WORKED FOR ALLISON. ALLISON I used to be a student that was studying ... maybe an hour ... lucky ... every day. Now can go from probably about four to eight hours. My academic priorities have changed ... and that's one of the most important things to me now. MYLES BRAND Athletics helps the educational experience ... it helps in competitiveness ... which is part of the American way ... helps in creativity ... persistence ... pursuit of excellence. Doing your homework ... practicing. NARRATOR: ALLISON JOINED WESTERN SOCCER IN THE PROGRAM’S FIRST YEAR. SINCE THEN, IT’S GOTTEN BETTER. NEIDELL Now that the program’s established we’re able to recruit more talented soccer players. We always talk to out team about this – we say we say our job is to recruit players better than you, your job is to make sure we can’t. And that first class has done an incredible job of making sue we can’t. NEIDELL: They've laid the foundation for what's going to happen over the next 15 or 20 years for this program.

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ALLISON It’s definitely going to be a program in the future that’s going to be highly competitive with the top twenty, top ten teams. Big time program. SOCCER ANNOUNCER Final score, Western Kentucky, 3 Louisiana Lafayette, 1. NARRATOR: ALISON WENT ON TO GRADUATE. HER TEAM FINISHED WITH A WINNING RECORD. GARY RANSDELL You've got to have a successful program ... and we're going to compete and we're going to win. Our emergence as a more competitive university is becoming known. NARRATOR: WESTERN KENTUCKY’S PRESIDENT, GARY RANSDELL, WANTS TO TAKE ALL THE UNIVERSITY'S TEAMS TO A HIGHER LEVEL. RANSDELL: We’re investing more and we’re bringing in more. The athletic budget has gone from lets say 6 million to close to 12 million. We just but 32 million dollars into our basketball arena. We put a lot of money into weight rooms and training facilities. Locker rooms. ATHLETE As you see right here ... this is the main part of the locker room. You have everybody's lockers and chairs and this is where we come and get ready for practice every day. We have some stereo things up in here. ... stadium seating for the film sessions. And here we've got whirlpool ... TVs ... when we eat before games we'll have this ... we'll have our food spread out here. And go into the lounge ... a big screen TV ... some leather couches ... we’ve got the pool table ... Play Station 2 ... just a place to come in and chill out. Get ready to go to business. INTERVIEWER: Isn’t this out of whack? RANSDELL: Sure it is. But on the other hand this our recruiting advantage., Gotta have a successful program, and we’re going to win in the post-season and we’re gonna find ways to do it.

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INTERVIEWER: What does a high profile team do for a university? GARY RANSDELL Energy ... marquee value ... institutional pride ...positive coverage You know, whether students have been to a game or not they like people back in their home town talking about it. DEFORD: I think it’s probable that at least by winning games and having a good athletic program you sort of raise your awareness and somehow that drags prestige from behind. RANSDELL: I want to be nationally competitive, whether its academically, student life, athletically; if we’re going to do it, let’s do it well. NARRATOR: ATOP THE WORLD OF COLLEGE SPORTS ARE BIG-TIME TEAMS LIKE THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA WILDCATS. IT’S 2004 LINE-UP WAS BUILT AROUND A NEW STAR RECRUIT, ANDRE: IGUODALA. ANDRE: I've been playing basketball since I was five years old. You know, let's be ... let's be truthful ... I want to play in the NBA some day. ANDRE: There's a lot of people say I can make it . And with hard work I know I can. NARRATOR: ANDRE: WORKED OUT TWICE A DAY. HITTING THE WEIGHT ROOM AT 7 A.M. ANDRE: It lasts about an hour and a half. That's a lot of work. You’ve got to keep your strength up. You know, there's big guys out there ... there's 15 and 280 pound guys ... even you ... everything we do in here translates over to the basketball court. NARRATOR: MOST AFTERNOONS ANDRE: PRACTICED TWO OR MORE HOURS UNDER HEAD COACH LUTE OLSON. OLSON Basketball is ... it's a demanding kind of schedule. They get an assurance that ... that we're going to work with them as hard as we can work with them ... to make them as good as we can be. INTERVIEWER: Is he good enough to play in the NBA?

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OLSON Yeah. He's definitely good enough to play in the NBA. ANDRE: It’s just getting down to perfection it’s like dissecting everything down to the smallest point. INTERVIEWER: Divide your time ... how much is basketball and how much is academic? ANDRE: I'd say it's 80/20. INTERVIEWER: 80/20 ... ANDRE: Yes. The majority of our time is spent right here on the hardwood and the, whatever time we have left after that we must you know get our schoolwork done. INTERVIEWER: Can you be a ... a good student ... if you can only give 20% of your time to your studies. ANDRE: Oh, I have a ... a 3.1 GPA ... , my mom raised me to get my school work done. So, , I think it's just managing your time. You know, you ... you do have ... you have a ... a decent amount of time to get your homework done ... but your body is so tired. You know, and your mind's not right to get all that work done with running up and down this court all day. So it's kind of tough. NARRATOR: TO HELP ATHLETES KEEP UP WITH THEIR STUDIES, UNIVERSITIES MAY PUT COMPUTER LABS INSIDE THE GYM. ATHLETES ALSO GET ONE ON ONE TUTORING AND COUNSELORS ARRANGE THEIR SCHEDULES. PLAYER: As a regular student you've got to wait in the long lines ... we pretty much just say ... okay, I want this class, this class and this class. We didn't wait in any lines. I mean, huge lines ... PLAYER: Then ... you know, when they get that class and that class is full ... we get that override ( (Laughter) ... NARRATOR: THESE FORMER COLLEGE ATHLETES ALL PLAYED DIVISION 1 BASKETBALL, THE PREMIER LEAGUE IN COLLEGE SPORTS.

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PLAYER: They brought you there to play basketball and to get your education. They don't want you to fail ... they want you to succeed ... so they're going to put the things in front of you to succeed. You've just got to take advantage of it. NARRATOR: SOME CAMPUSES EVEN HAVE BUILDINGS LIKE THIS ONE ... ONE STOP ACADEMIC SERVICE CENTERS ... EXCLUSIVELY FOR ATHLETES. FRANK DEFORD: Athletes are cosseted ... they're coddled ... they're given advantages that ordinary students aren't. It's really terribly un-American. Athletics is a class system in a country that's supposed to be classless. ANDRE: It is an advantage to have tutors ... but there's also ... you know, you have to think that we do need them and ... and we do need help because we don't have the time that other students have to study. INTERVIEWER: You go on the road ... you must miss classes. How do you keep up? ANDRE: Actually we ... we've been on the road five out of the last six weeks. And that's a Wednesday through Sunday ... so we miss too much classes. PLAYER: You've got to squeeze in it... believe it or not ... when you go and study another little hour. That's not even enough you probably got to still do work after practice when you get back to your room. PLAYER: The challenge for us is try and find some type of energy somewhere that’s left in you to go pick up a book and try to study. Me and my teammate one time we just had finished running 10 ,10 220’s. You fully drain your whole body physically. So I finally make it home I crash I lay down on my bed and look out the window and I see these regular students. They’re outside playing with the what do you call them little .. foos- hacky-sacks. And they’re ha-ha-ha-ha- they got drinks in their hands and they’re kicking the hacky-sack. I wish that I the energy they had to do that and the free time they had to do that because I honestly I just like fell asleep looking at my book you know.

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PLAYER: It's definitely not easy at all. There is nothing easy about it. You could go downhill easily ... Easy to fail ... It's easy to fail. As ... as ... as good as it may seem ... you know, to be on TV (Overlap) and everything ... as good as it is to be on the TV the next day you're not ... PLAYER: There's a lot of athletes with no degrees out there. Some guys who went to big schools with no degrees. But they don't show you that on TV. Don't put that out there. There's a lot of athletes out there who don't finish. A lot ... NARRATOR: THE CASUALITIES INCLUDE FORMER PLAYER:S LIKE FRED WHITE. WHITE I didn't go to school as much as I should have. Everything I did was just towards football. NARRATOR: WHITE MADE THE BIG PLAYS AT TENESSEE. BUT HE FOUND IT EASY TO TAKE THE SHORTCUTS AROUND HIS STUDIES. WHITE I would go to the advisors and they would give us a ... a list of classes that we should take. And, , I guess I would poll the guys to see which class they thought were the easier ones for the ... you know, for the fall. And I'd make a list myself ... and say these are the classes I think I'm comfortable taking. NARRATOR: AT MANY BIG TIME PROGRAMS, PLAYER:S FOLLOW ONE ANOTHER TO THE EASIEST MAJORS. EDWARDS: I know of an institutions where its physical education or communications. , and in some instances its an out right fraud. NARRATOR: OTHER SHORTCUTS FOR ATHLETES CAN LEAD TO TROUBLE. PLAYER: Some programs just give you 12 credits so you pass those and you're eligible for the next semester ... and the following semester ... following semester. But at that rate, they’re not on point to graduate. INTERVIEWER: And what happens when you hit the end of four years?

John HeusComment:

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PLAYER: Your career is over at the institution ... and you don't have a degree. INTERVIEWER: So you have this system. How well did it work out? WHITE (Laughs) It worked out pretty well ... I mean, I was always in the (Inaudible) where I could get eligible for the next season. INTERVIEWER: How much progress were you making toward graduating? WHITE At that time it didn't matter. It didn't matter as far as graduating because I was ... more focus on that ... on my goal ... on making it to the NFL. NARRATOR: WHITE’S TEAMMATE RATLIFF RATLIFF FELL BEHIND FOR OTHER REASONS. RATLIFF: Injuries ... it's tough. They killed me. They ... they set me back a long way. RATLIFF: I've had so many surgeries here ... you know I, I’ve actually been paralyzed for about 13 hours ... INTERVIEWER: How many operations have you had? RATLIFF (Laughing) Nine INTV Where? RATLIFF Knees, fingers, shin, ankles, you name it I think I’ve had it. INTVER. Did anyone ever say, ‘hang it up’? RATLIFF Everybody ... my mom ... coaches ... I couldn't do it. I mean, football ... I just love it ... and it was ... it was fun ... I mean, it was my passion ... I loved it. NARRATOR: BUT RATLIFF'S INJURIES TOOK A TOLL ON HIS STUDIES. RATLIFF I had to drop all of my courses. 'Cause I wasn't able to go to class ... all the medication I was on ... it was ... wouldn't allow me to go to school. INTV: you were on medications, what did that do to you? RATLIFF: I’ve heard stories where I was hallucinating or taking crazy and very mean to people and stuff like that and I don’t want to be like that because that’s not who I am.

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NARRATOR: UNABLE TO STUDY, RATLIFF DROPPED OUT. AND SO DID FRED WHITE. BOTH HAD FALLEN FAR BEHIND IN CREDITS. NARRATOR: 46% OF THE FOOTBALL PLAYER:S AND 54% OF MEN’S BASKETBALL PLAYER:S FAIL TO FINISH COLLEGE. EDWARDS: There are universities, , which have graduated so low, , proportion, , of their athletes and, , these Division I sports ... that, , they are embarrassed, , to, ... , to ... to ... to deal with it. BRAND I think the problem is serious. NARRATOR: THE NCAA HAS TRIED TO ADDRESS IT. MYLES BRAND We've instituted a system of rewards and punishments. And so if a men's basketball team, for example, doesn't graduate its student athletes we will take away some of their scarce resources ... namely, the ability to offer scholarships. NARRATOR: SO FAR, THE NCAA HAS WITHDRAWN 254 SCHOLARSHIPS, THREE-QUARTERS OF THEM TAKEN FROM TEAMS IN FOOTBALL AND MEN’S BASKETBALL. MYLES BRAND When you get to big time football and basketball the challenge becomes more intense. But we don't want to judge all intercollegiate athletics by those two high visibility sports. The graduation rate of student athletes overall is higher than the graduation rate of the general student body. NARRATOR: BUT THE GRADUATES INCLUDE FORMER COLLEGE ATHLETES LIKE KARL SANDERS. KARL I didn't want to put forth no hard work academically ... so I took all the shortcuts. That's what ... that's what I chose to do ... take shortcuts. NARRATOR: SANDERS PLAYED DIVISION I BASKETBALL ON A FULL ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIP.

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KARL Now to keep it real ... you get so much help ... you know, like say if I got a ten page paper ... you think I'm going to be doing it ... or do you think one of my ... one of the best fans in the world going to do it ... a lot of guys ... you know, they get help from their peers at school. Like that's just ... that's just how it is. I mean, I ... I've been in ... when I was in college we used to sit around in the lunchroom and laugh about how we getting' other people to do our papers and stuff like that. That's just not ... and I'm not a bad student. It's just that if you can get over you're going to get over. DEFORD: There's a certain amount of cheating that's done in any number of institutions where papers are written for these players where they really don't do the homework themselves ... or a substantial amount of it. I think that that's sort of understood even if nobody wants to say it out loud. KARL We didn't have to put forth the effort that a regular every day student would have to graduate. Because its just...its just that way. NARRATOR: BUT SANDERS WASN'T ALONE IN BREAKING THE RULES. TOWARD THE END OF HIS COLLEGE CAREER HE RECALLS HIS COACHES URGED HIM TO SWITCH MAJORS FROM SOCIAL STUDIES TO SPECIAL STUDIES. KARL When he told me special studies I had no idea what it really was. A special studies major ... INTERVIEWER: What is it? KARL It ... it ... it's a ... it's a major they found. (Laughs) I don't know ... I don't really ... you know, I ... that's what it was, man ... I had volleyball... soccer ... swimming' as classes. So, you know, I ... that's when it started getting' like too easy. They was just throwing' me classes. Just to get out. NARRATOR: SANDERS ASKED US NOT TO IDENTIFY HIS COLLEGE, WHERE HE STILL GOES ON OCCASION TO GET HELP FROM TRAINERS. WE WERE ABLE TO VERIFY HIS STORY AND AGREED TO HIS REQUEST BECAUSE ACADEMIC FRAUD OCCURS AT FAR MORE SCHOOLS THAN ONE. EDWARDS: The reality is the athlete ... once he has no eligibility ... literally has no place in that business. He is forgotten.

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KARL Give him a special studies major and let's get him out of here. See, that's what I'm telling you ... that's what I was trying to explain to you the whole time. Like it's not about what you could do in the ... in the classroom ... it's only about what you could do on the court. NARRATOR: ON THE COURT IN ARIZONA ANDRE: IGUADOLA KNEW WHAT WAS EXPECTED OF HIM. ANDRE: The reason why I'm here is to play basketball. INTERVIEWER: When you say that ... does anybody say, hey, wait a minute ... aren't you here to get an education? ANDRE: And that's also true ... but if we didn't play basketball we wouldn't be here and that's just the reality you have to face. The main thing is we have to win on the basketball court. EDWARDS: There's a tremendous tension between the academic and the athletic side. Too much money involved. The money is too big. NARRATOR: THE MONEY GOT BIG WHEN ATHLETIC DEPARTMENTS STRUCK OUT ON THEIR OWN. DEFORD: What people said was “It’s terrible that all this money goes to sports.” And athletic departments said “you’re absolutely right; we don’t want to have we don’t want to take any money away from our dear friends in the geography department so what we’re going to do is we’ll separate ourselves from the university and be stand- alone.” And of course what that did for us is that gave them even more power. NARRATOR: THEY MADE BASKETBALL AND FOOTBALL BIGGER THAN EVER. OLSON It is a business ... right now it's making $15 million a year. We've been sold out for 18 consecutive years. NARRATOR: TICKET SALES MAKE UP MOST OF THE REVENUE.

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NARRATOR: BUT ARIZONA ALSO EARNS $350,O00 FROM TV RIGHTS. NARRATOR: TWO MILLION MORE COMES FROM A CONTRACT THE UNIVERSITY SIGNED WITH NIKE. OLSON Nike takes care of all the uniforms ... takes care of all the shoes ... takes care of all the equipment. ... the travel equipment ... , all of those things. They get a tremendous amount of exposure. They get a lot for their buck. EDWARDS: It's a business. It's a straight-up multi billion- dollar business. BRAND It's no more business than higher education itself. There are no owners or shareholders in college sports. The beneficiaries are the revenues that come into college sports ... are by and large the students who participate. NARRATOR: BUT TOP LEVEL COACHES ALSO BENEFIT, EARNING NEARLY 1 MILLION DOLLARS ON AVERAGE IN FOOTBALL, 1.2 MILLION IN BASKETBALL…RECORD SALARIES THAT DO NOT INCLUDE PERKS AND ENDORSEMENTS. ARIZONA’S DEAL WITH NIKE INCLUDES HALF A MILLION DOLLARS FOR LUTE OLSON. OLSON: People take issue with that, but you know what, people who rail against it are people who really don’t understand that we can’t exist as a sports program anymore without help from the commercial end of it. INTERVIEWER: And does the money that your basketball program brings in does that money help other athletic programs? OLSON Oh, yeah ... no, the football and basketball finance, all of the other 17 sports at this university ... If I owned basketball ... that if all of a sudden we weren't filling the arena here ... I wouldn't have a job ... I don't care if ... if I'm in the Hall of Fame or anything else. Because the school athletic program cannot exist without the $15 million dollars that basketball brings in. Now to me that means it's a business. NARRATOR: COLLEGES USE SOME OF THE EARNINGS, TO GIVE SCHOLARSHIPS TO ATHLETES.

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HARRY EDWARDS: That's not a deal ... that's the rip-off. ... the ... everybody is paid. Everybody gets paid except the athletes. Coaches get paid ... the school gets paid ... the referees get paid ... the people who bill and ... and maintain the stadiums get paid ... the university gets paid ... everybody gets paid except the one person that's bringing in all of the money ... and that's the athlete. BRAND: We don’t pay student athletes because they are students. That’s the real answer. It’s okay to be a professional in sports and more power to you if can make it. But when you’re in college you’re there to get an education. EDWARDS: The only amateurs in collegiate athletics are those who believe there are amateurs in collegiate athletics. And if Mr. Brand believes that there are amateurs in collegiate athletics, then he’s an amateur. INTV: Do you ever say to yourself ... hey, wait a minute ... they're using me to fill these seats ... ANDRE: IGUODALA I think you can't think like that. You know, I don't. And you think they're making so much money of you like ... , my jersey is in the bookstore ... you know, they're selling for $6 a piece. I'm not getting' no piece of that. And that's making money off of me. ANDRE: Every game's been sold out for 17 years now ... so it's like they're making money off of you ... but also I guess we all think that if we put in the hard work, you know, on the court ... and listen to Coach Olson ... then maybe our dream will be fulfilled in playing professional basketball somewhere. INTERVIEWER: So it's a fair deal ... ANDRE: ... I don't think it's an exact fair deal ... but that's the way we have ... that's the best way you can look at it ... and you just have to move on and just deal with it. NARRATOR: AFTER HELPING ARIZONA EARN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, ANDRE: IGUODALA DROPPED OUT DURING HIS SOPHOMORE YEAR AND HEADED FOR THE NBA DRAFT.

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NBA COMMISONER With the ninth pick the Philadelphia 76ers select ANDRE: Iguadola from the University of Arizona. NARRATOR: MORE ARIZONA BASKETBALL PLAYER:S MAKE IT TO THE PROS THAN GRADUATE. INTERVIEWER: What’s your reaction? DEFORD: I think Lute Olson is running a very good elementary pro program. The question is, is it right, does it help education. NARRATOR: IGUODALA NOW EARNS NEARLY 3 MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR, BUT FEWER THAN ONE PERCENT OF ALL COLLEGE BASKETBALL PLAYER:S EVER REACH THE NBA. ODDS FOR THE NFL ARE ABOUT THE SAME. CAREERS IN EITHER LEAGUE ARE SHORT. WHITE If I could go back and do it all over ... yeah, I'd take school a little more serious ... you know, 'cause I didn't have a long football career. You know, it ... it didn't work out completely like I wanted it to. NARRATOR: INJURED IN HIS FIRST PRO SEASON, FRED WHITE’S CAREER WAS OVER. HE DROVE A TRUCK AND DID ODD JOBS, SCRAPING BY. WHITE I've never expected for it to be that hard. That's when I started to think I need to go back to school and finish up ... and get back into the things that they were trying to teach me. To fine tune those things so I can do better. RATLIFF It's been a whole lot easier for me ... 'cause I'm actually doing what they told me to do. I mean, as long as I go to class I pass. NARRATOR: TENNESSEE GAVE RATLIFF A SECOND CHANCE. THE UNIVERSITY HAS A PROGRAM THAT PAYS TUITION FOR RETURNING ATHLETES. INTERVIEWER: Are you a different student? RATLIFF Ah ... most definitely. I mean, I'm ... I'm up front ... and everything ... and I'm able to walk to class instead of crutch to class ... or get somebody to take me to class ... so it’s a whole lot easier.

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CARLSON Football ... at big time football programs ... football’s going to use you for your athletics. They're going to use you. Turn right around and use us for academics ... if we sat in your living room and told your parents how important it was to see you get that degree ... we're going to do everything on our part to try and help you earn that degree. We're fortunate here at UT to have the resources that we can make that promise ... and then back it up by paying for them afterwards. But not every ... not every college program can do this. EDWARDS: It's almost ... an isolated kind of situation. I don't see any huge demand ... any huge movement ... any phenomenal outrage over what happened, , to, , the ... the generation of athletes that came through .. ... , four years ago. Colleges and universities are so interested in who's on the field this year and what are your chances. Who cares about a particular generation of athletes who may be exploited. KARL I kind of didn't get nothing' from college but sports. NARRATOR: KARL SANDERS: KARL: I reaped the benefits of getting' out the easy way. NARRATOR: SINCE GRADUATING SANDERS HAS TRIED TO WORK HIS WAY UP THE PROFESSIONAL RANKS, RECENTLY PLAYING FOR A MINOR LEAGUE TEAM PRACTICING OUT OF A SALVATION ARMY GYM. KARL I can't take nothing that I learned from school and apply it to the world now. Nothing. I'm still doing the things I did when I was nine and ten ... Play ball. BRAND: We're creating by doing this a lost generation. That really saddens me. What can we do about that? Whose fault is that? NARRATOR: FAULT LIES IN A COLLEGE SPORTS SYSTEM DRIVEN BY PROFITS. BUT ATHLETES AREN’T THE ONLY ONES WHO PAY.

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NARRATOR: IN THE LATE 1990’S BIRMINGHAM-SOUTHERN COLLEGE IN ALABAMA SAW ITS FORTUNES RISE, AND AMBITIONS FOLLOWED. Pollick: Everybody’s riding the stock market and it’s going beautifully, so stock market is on the rise, fundraising is going fine, and the campus reputation is growing and growing, so that can be a little heady and you start to think, well everything bigger is better. NARRATOR: LONG CONSIDERED AN ACADEMIC LEADER, BUT A RUNNER UP IN SPORTS, BIRMINGHAM’S TRUSTEES NARRATOR:TED OVERWHELMINGLY IN 1999 TO TAKE ITS ATHLETIC PROGRAM TO THE BIG TIME, DIVISION 1. THAT WAS BEFORE DAVID POLLICK BECAME PRESIDENT. Pollick: The aspiration was the national attention that comes from Division 1 sports, it would help you in your enrollment, they thought, you’ll be in markets that you’re not currently in, that’s why they went in. NARRATOR: BIRMINGHAM SOUTHERN’S TEAMS POSTED WINNING RECORDS, EXPECTING PUBLICITY WOULD FOLLOW. Pollick: The reality was very different than that. On the marketing side nationally it really wasn’t giving us any greater bounce. You might get the ticker on the bottom of ESPN but anybody who has a 9x16 TV knows they chop off the bottom of that. I think it’s really questionable whether they were getting that kind of bounce. NARRATOR: MEANWHILE THE COLLEGE WAS SPENDING HEAVILY, ON ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIPS AND MORE, TRYING TO KEEP UP WITH THE COMPETITION. DEFORD: It’s the arms race. If I at small good school X build a new weight room to attract athletes, then we at small good school Y have to build a weight room. Then somebody has to build and indoor track, and then somebody has to build a new swimming pool. The facilities , the amount of money paid to attract athletes gets greater and greater all the time.

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SCHULMAN When you take in the fixed costs ... the fixed operating costs of the numbers of coaches and the recruiting and the recruiting visits and all that ... , these schools spend a lot of money. NARRATOR: JAMES SHULMAN IS CO-AUTHOR OF “THE GAME OF LIFE”, A BOOK ABOUT THE ACADEMIC AND BUSINESS SIDES OF COLLEGE SPORTS. SHULMAN: Now, when they ... when they do well they make a lot of money. But, as everyone knows in any realm ... if you have something where the costs are very fixed and the revenues are very volatile ... on average you're not going to do so well. SHULMAN One year Stanford lost a game that they weren't supposed to loose. Well, that meant that they got kicked off TV for the game against USC because all of a sudden it wasn't going to be such a big game. That meant a huge loss for Stanford and ... you know, so ... the revenues are so sensitive to winning, at the big time that, but the costs aren't. BRAND I know this for a fact ... the vast majority of schools ... even in Division I ... are losing money ... if you do honest accounting. In fact I would say that no more than a dozen or so of these schools actually break even or do a little better. Intercollegiate athletics nationally in all divisions generates about $4 billion a year. And it spends about five. Pollick: There is a myth that all division one programs make money. Our problem was that we were spending too much. NARRATOR: BY 2006, RUNAWAY ATHLETIC SPENDING HAD DRIVEN BIRMINGHAM SOUTHERN INTO A 6 MILLION DOLLAR DEFICIT, COMPOUNDING ITS FAILED ATTEMPT TO WIN NATIONALLY PUBLICITY THROUGH SPORTS. POLICK HAD SEEN ENOUGH. QUITTING THE BIG LEAGUES, HE ELIMINATED ALL 144 ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIPS, WORTH SOME 2 MILLION DOLLARS, AND DIRECTED THE SAVINGS TOWARD ACADEMICS. IN PROTEST, THE BASEBALL TEAM QUIT, BASKETBALL TOO, AND THAT WAS JUST THE START.

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Polllck: Your sports writers in town, they go crazy, their lives depend on being able to write about sports and you come to them and say no, no I’m taking away the sports! I had one sports writer say ‘Oh my God, you’re taking away my job, I’m going to lose my job if I can’t write about sports at Birmingham Southern, and so you can imagine what they’re writing in the meantime as they are trying to stop this. INTV: At that moment, tell me what your thoughts were? Pollick: It was the right thing to do. I love athletics. I play ball and all that. That’s not the issue. The issue is how does it fit in a college environment. Are we here to create a spectator situation for other people or are we here for the experience of the student. I think Division 1 athletics is so out of shape in America today that we have lost all perspective. NARRATOR: IN A TWIST, ATHLETICS HAS GROWN HERE AS A RESULT OF BEING DOWNGRADED. STUDENTS NOT GIFTED ENOUGH TO COMPETE IN BIG TIME PROGRAMS, SAW OPPORTUNITIES TO PLAY HERE AND APPLIED IN RECORD NUMBERS, MOST PAYING FULL TUITION. NARRATOR: BIRMINGHAM SOUTHERN ALSO ADDED SPORTS, INCLUDING FOOTBALL, AS A WAY TO ATTRACT EVEN MORE STUDENTS. Pollick: We haven’t had football here since 1939. Now that we’ve reinstituted it there was a real energy on the campus and in the city. I was on the field for a good deal of it. Pollick (on Field): First touchdown in 69 years! INTV : The thing that struck me, was how empty the stadium was. Did you ever think when you were there, maybe I am walking away from something. Maybe if we were division 1 maybe we could pack a place like this? Pollack: No, no, no. never. Never crossed my mind. Not in the slightest. I said we’re home. NARRATOR: CARRYING MOMENTUM FROM ITS FIRST WIN, BIRMINGHAM SOUTHERN HAS TURNED ITS BACK ON BIG TIME

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SPORTS. FAR MORE COLLEGES ARE DOING THE OPPOSITE: CLIMBING DIVISIONS AND SPENDING HEAVILY IN ANTICIPATION THAT MORE WINS WILL BRING IN MORE MONEY. BRAND: That is not a long term sustainable approach. NARRATOR: MYLES BRAND WARNED OF THE CONSEQUENCES, IN A SPEECH TO THE NCAA. BRAND SPEECH These problems will mean that the universities will have to increase its subsidy to athletics. Some subsidy in almost all cases is required ... and that's acceptable. But the greater the subsidy the less funding is available for core academic activity of the university. DEFORD: It's only diversion. It's rah-rah for State U ... but at the end of the day to support that fun it's about money. NARRATOR: INCREASINGLY, COLLEGES PASS DOWN THE COST. DEFORD: Students are charged a fee. They in effect subsidize sports ... the whole rotten ship ... with their own extra money that they have to pay. NARRATOR: COLLEGES MAY HAVE TO RAISE STUDENT FEES AND DIG DEEPER THAN EVER INTO SCARCE ACADEMIC FUNDS TO COVER SPORTS RISING COSTS—$27 MILLION A YEAR ON AVERAGE AT OVER 100 MAJOR SCHOOLS. INTERVIEWER: What does this have to do with the purposes of a university? FRANK DEFORD: Nothing. It has nothing whatsoever to do with education. What it has to do is something that's grown up ... a goiter on the educational system. Which is very, very visible. But has ... absolutely serves no purpose, , educationally. NARRATOR: EVEN AT AMERICA’S MOST ACADEMICALLY PRESTIGIOUS SCHOOLS, SPORTS IS HAVING AN IMPACT. PLACES LIKE AMHERST COLLEGE IN WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS.

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ANTHONY MARX Our standards are incredibly high. Amherst College is in the business of selecting and educating future leaders for this society and beyond. NARRATOR: AMHERST IS AN ELITE PRIVATE COLLEGE WITH ONLY 1600 STUDENTS. MARX: Amherst College is certain privileged to have an astonishing faculty ... , to be ranked the number one liberal arts college in America ... more than any other institution. ... and ... and we take some pride in that ... because we are competitive. NARRATOR: AMHERST’S STELLAR REPUTATION ATTRACTS MORE THAN 6,000 APPLICANTS A YEAR ... VYING FOR ROUGHLY 400 SEATS. NARRATOR: COMPARED TO OTHER APPLICANTS ... JAY WAGSTAFF DIDN'T QUITE MEASURE UP. JAY WAGSTAFF I didn't do too well on my SATs. They turned out to be 1100 ... which here isn't that ... that great. ... it's really low for here. But, ... INTERVIEWER: What do you mean really low for here ... JAY Well, I think the average around here is like 14 something ... and, ... so that was ... what was the one thing that was holding me back. NARRATOR: BUT WAGSTAFF HAD OTHER TALENTS. TV ANNOUNCER (Background)Third down and long. And (Inaudible) to throw ... Wagstaff makes the catch ... and what a great catch over the shoulder by Jay Wagstaff ... and maybe he (Inaudible) to listen to you, Greg ... MILLS: He's a kid that was a good student in high school ... but he was a ... you know, he was a jock. He was a kid that played three sports, you know, and ... and, , didn't have probably a lot other interests. Worked hard in school. ... but probably not a typical, you know, maybe Amherst student.

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INTERVIEWER: Is Jay what you call an athletic admit? MILLS Yeah. I mean, ... , the athletic piece was the thing that pushed him over the top in admissions. NARRATOR: AMHERST'S 27 VARSITY TEAMS INCLUDE SOME 260 SO CALLED “ATHLETIC ADMITS”. IN ALL, 15 PERCENT OF THE STUDENT BODY ... HAD THE BAR LOWERED ON THE WAY IN. MARX We set aside certain spots in admissions, , to, , be able to, , have the most competitive teams. INTERVIEWER: Do you admit students who can't make it here? MARX We are not interested ... , it would be irresponsible, , for us to have students here who can't do Amherst level work. NARRATOR: BUT MANY ATHLETES ADMITTED IN THE PAST CAME DANGEROUSLY CLOSE. STANDARDS FELL SO PRECARIOUSLY IN THE 1990S FACULTY GAVE IT ALL A NAME. MILLS They referred to it as the lurch. The football program had gotten so bad .... it turned to they lost 24 games in a row or whatever it is. I ... I think some kids got in that maybe wouldn't have normally got in. And, you know, we got successful very quickly. MARX We've been working now for a decade to try to raise the floor of those admits. The danger is that we won't win. And that ... that would have problems in terms of the ... the spirit of the place ... the community of the place. ELIZABETH ARIES That's a mistake. Amherst is trying to be athletically, , excellent in our league and beyond. But then the question is who ... NARRATOR: ATHLETIC ADMITS PRESENT A PROBLEM TO PROFESSORS LIKE ELIZABETH ARIES. ELIZABETH ARIES I give an exam and the scores range from 98 to 45. You know, and ... you know, and that's ... that's a large spread. Now most of the people are in the, you know, 75 to 98 range. And then there's a big gap. And then there are these people that it's like 45 ... 50 ... 55. And then if you look at who those students are ... it actually turns out to be the

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case often ... not always ... that those students ... um, some of those students are on these sports teams that we're talking about. JAMES SHULMAN The trends are very clear ... that the athletes at these places are coming in with less academic preparation ... and then as they go through school they're ... they're also underperforming what would have been predicted academically of them. NARRATOR: SCHULMAN ANALYZED THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF MORE THAN 50,000 ATHLETES AT ELITE COLLEGES. SHULMAN They're not making the most of the educational opportunities. And I ... and this is my call ... it's not a ... , these schools may feel differently ... but that ... that is someone who's not taking full advantage of a place that is primarily about academics. DEFORD: The dirty little secret of places like Princeton and Williams and Amherst and all of those schools ... is that in some respects athletes lower the educational component ... that's the problem. BUFFY They're not striving to get an A ... and our contributing to the conversations that other people might like to engage in at a more intellectual level ... I think that is ... that's a mistake. I mean, we've gone ... at the bottom end we've gone too far. NARRATOR: JAY WAGSTAFF WAS THE BOTTOM END OF HIS CLASS. JAY When I first came in freshman year I took Calculus 11 ... and it ... it seemed like it was my ... the class I took senior year ... but we covered basically everything in the first day that I did my senior year in high school. MILLS Always the hard thing is ... a lot of our kids are used to doing really well before they come here. They're not used to asking for help. So, you know, sometimes it's a big step for kids to go down to that prof and say listen ... , I don't get this. JAY I was shy at first with talking to professors. And I would be shy to speak in class.

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MILLS Got to get over that. You know, this is a place that if you're struggling you've got to ask people for help. ... always my sage advice to the freshman is ... you know, sit up front ... take good notes and find someone smarter than you to study with. Which is never a problem for me. JAY So I found somebody and, , it ... it worked out ... and I'm proud of the ... the steps I took towards getting the grade. NARRATOR: AS A SENIOR JAY'S GRADE POINT AVERAGE WAS A 3.0. JAY I’ve greatly improved since my freshman year ... and I'm proud of that. NARRATOR: THE FINAL GAME OF THE SEASON WAS THE BIGGEST IN JAY'S CAREER. A WIN AT HOME AGAINST ARCH-RIVAL WILLIAMS. JAY That was awesome … Everything I thought it would be ...everything I though I be … it's great. NARRATOR: WAGSTAFF WOULD GO ON TO GRADUATE, AND ATTEND LAW SCHOOL. BUT QUESTIONS STILL REMAIN ABOUT THE FAIRNESS OF ATHLETIC ADMITS. FRANK DEFORD: There's nothing wrong insofar as the case of the boy is concerned. Hey, you get, , a free pass ... or you get a bump up ... anybody should take that. I'm saying ... in his case ... the question is though ... who was Mr. X who didn't get into Amherst because the athlete did. NARRATOR: AND THERE'S A PRICE THE ENTIRE STUDENT BODY PAYS WHEN COLLEGES FILL THEIR TEAMS WITH ATHLETIC ADMITS. SHULMAN There’s that argument: sports build characters. And yet what about the person that you know wants to study chemistry, but wants to learn those lessons about collaboration competition and drive and being

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goal-oriented.. Can that person go play sports? That person walks onto the field the coach says sure go stand behind those seven players I just recruited from all over the country. We’re finding the people who’ve been playing sports since there six. Who have been pushing themselves, who’ve been goal-oriented, who’ve been running wind sprints at six o clock in the morning. So, a lot of the good things about college sports in terms of building character or learning about life are only going to the people who already had those lessons to begin with. And even for kids sports are being taken so seriously and so focused on winning and raising the game to the next level, that we focus on those goals rather than on the goals of participation and um and success defined in other ways. The whole thing has gotten out of whack. NARRATOR: COLLEGE SPORTS WERE INTENDED TO BUILD SOUND MINDS AND SOUND BODIES. BUT MOST STUDENTS ARE EXCLUDED FROM PLAYING AND MANY ATHLETES ARE DENIED AN EDUCATION. DEFORD: We‘re losing the substance, and I think that’s what’s so very unfortunate, But I think its like the electoral college --it isn’t going to change. We accept it. The alumni, the trustees, the president, the faculty, the students. we all wink at it. NARRATOR: FOR MORE INFORMATION ON BIG TIME LOSERS AND OTHER PBS PROGRAMS, GO TO PBS.ORG NARRATOR: PRINCIPAL SUPPORT FOR THIS PROGRAM WAS PROVIDED BY THE WILLIAM AND FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION. ADDITIONAL SUPPORT WAS PROVIDED BY LUMINA FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION AND THE ANNENBERG FOUNDATION. NARRATOR: THIS IS PBS.