For fifteen years, sports agent Josh Luchs made illegal deals with
numerous college athletes, from top-tier, nationally recognized phenoms
to late-round draft picks. Flagrantly flaunting NCAA and NFL Players
Association rules, he made no-interest loans to players in exchange for
the promise of representation on their lucrative pro contracts. After
cleaning up his act in 2003, he moved to a new agency, only to be
targeted and pushed out of the business for a new violation-one he
arguably did not commit. Then, in October 2010, Luchs wrote a
confessional article in Sports Illustrated, telling the truth about
what he did and didn't do.
Since then he has taken on a new role: whistle-blowing, truth-telling
reformer. And in telling his own story, Luchs pulls back the curtain on
the real economy of college football: how agents win players legally and
otherwise, the staggering sums colleges make from an unpaid workforce,
the shortfalls of supposed full-ride scholarships, and the myth of a
college education given to scholarship jocks. Including new information
about major players and scandalized programs such as USC, Auburn, and
Ohio State, this book pulls no punches. It's a stunning and necessary
read for anyone who loves the game, and the first step toward fixing a
broken system.
