Fourth and Long : The Fight for the Soul of College Football

From New York Times bestselling author and Michigan football expert John Back, an analysis of the state of college football: Why we love the game, what is at risk, and the fight to save it. In search of the sport's old ideals amid the roaring flood of hypocrisy and greed, bestselling author John U. Bacon embedded himself in four college football programs—Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, and Northwestern—and captured the oldest, biggest, most storied league, the Big Ten, at its tipping point. He sat in as coaches dissected game film, he ate dinner at training tables, and he listened in locker rooms. He talked with tailgating fans and college presidents, and he spent months in the company of the gifted young athletes who play the game. Fourth and Long reveals intimate scenes behind closed doors, from a team's angry face-off with their athletic director to a defensive lineman acing his master's exams in theoretical math. It captures the private moment when coach Urban Meyer earned the devotion of Ohio State's Buckeyes on their way to a perfect season. It shows Michigan's athletic department endangering the very traditions that distinguish the college game from all others. And it re-creates the euphoria of the Northwestern Wildcats winning their first bowl game in decades. Most unforgettably, Fourth and Long finds what the national media missed in the ugly aftermath of Penn State's tragic scandal: the unheralded story of players who joined forces with Coach Bill O'Brien to save the university's treasured program—and with it, a piece of the game's soul. This is the work of a writer in love with an old game—a game he sees at the precipice. Bacon's deep knowledge of sports history and his sensitivity to the tribal subcultures of the college game power this elegy to a beloved and endangered American institution. Why we love the game, what is at risk, and the fight to save it. In search of the sports old ideals amid the roaring flood of hypocrisy and greed, bestselling author John U. Bacon embedded himself in four programsPenn State, Ohio State, Michigan, and Northwesternand captured college footballs oldest, biggest, most storied league, the Big Ten, at its tipping point. He sat in as coaches dissected game film, he ate dinner at training tables, and he listened in locker rooms. He talked with tailgating fans and college presidents, and he spent months in the company of the gifted young athletes who play the game. None of Bacons discoveries is more poignant than this: the last, true defenders of the student-athlete ideal are the players themselves, who, even as money changes everything around them, are left to carry the future of the league, the game, and more than a century of tradition on their backs every fall Saturday. Fourth and Long reveals intimate scenes behind closed doors, from a teams angry face-off with their athletic director to a defensive lineman acing his masters exams in theoretical math. It captures the private moment when coach Urban Meyer earned the devotion of Ohio States Buckeyes on their way to a perfect season. It shows Michigans athletic department endangering the very traditions that distinguish the college game from all others. And it recreates the euphoria of the Northwestern Wildcats winning their first bowl game in decades, even as they do honor to the student-athlete ideal. Most unforgettably, Fourth and Long finds what the national media missed in the ugly aftermath of Penn States tragic scandal: the unheralded story of players who joined forces with Coach Bill OBrien to save the universitys treasured programand with it, a piece of the games soul. This is the work of a writer in love with an old gamea game he sees at the precipice. Bacons deep knowledge of sports history and his sensitivity to the tribal subcultures of the college game power this elegy to a beloved and endangered American institution.

For the millions of fans who celebrate the game-day heroics of the student athletes that give college football its heart and soul, bestselling author John U. Bacon’s Fourth and Long, a warts-and-all look at the present and future of the game, gives them reason to still believe.

In 2012-13, college football’s possible futures were clearly on display as the Big Ten, the nation’s oldest and most popular league, struggled through a season extraordinary for what it portends for the game. Granted unprecedented access to four programs—Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, and Northwestern—Bacon saw up close how money, influence, and power haunt the league. And Bacon discovered that all four teams—buffeted by NCAA sanctions, scandal, fading rivalries, and the wide and narrow vision of coaches and athletic directors—are responding differently.

He’s also discovered something surprising. Expressed at tailgates in South Bend, the locker room in Happy Valley, the sidelines and bleachers of Ohio Stadium, among Michigan's marching band alums on homecoming weekend, and everywhere college football fans gather in their thousands, winning isn't everything. How a team wins matters, and that's measured in the guts and loyalty of the student athletes who, against incredible odds, fight for the traditions, passions, and ideals that have always defined what we most admire about college football.

Bacon take a warts-and-all look at the present and future of college football. He embedded himself in four programs: Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, and Northwestern. He ate dinner at training tables, and he listened in locker rooms. None of Bacon's discoveries is more poignant than this: the last, true defenders of the student-athlete ideal are the players themselves, who, even as money changes everything around them, are left to carry the future of the league, the game, and more than a century of tradition on their backs every fall Saturday