Reclaiming the Game

William G. Bowen is President of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and former President of Princeton University. He is coauthor of "The Shape of the River" and "The Game of Life" (both Princeton). A former All-American collegiate athlete, Sarah A. Levin is a doctoral student at the Harvard School of Public Health and a research associate at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. She completed her undergraduate work in mathematics at Harvard, where she was an All-American collegiate athlete.

• *FrontMatter, pg. i*Contents, pg. v*Chapter 1. Introduction, pg. 1*Chapter 2. Recruitment of College Athletes, pg. 43*Chapter 3. The Admissions Advantage, pg. 57*Chapter 4. Athletes in College: Academic Credentials, Athletic Participation, and Campus Culture, pg. 85*Chapter 5. Academic Outcomes, pg. 116*Chapter 6. Academic Underperformance, pg. 145*Chapter 7. Orbits of Competition: The Role of the Conference, pg. 173*Chapter 8. The Widening Athletic Divide, pg. 196*Chapter 9. The Athletic Divide in Context, pg. 219*Chapter 10. Retaking the High Ground, pg. 243*Chapter 11. Reform at the Institutional and Conference Levels: Recruiting, Admissions, and Coaching, pg. 262*Chapter 12. Reform at the Institutional and Conference Levels: The Athletic Program, pg. 280*Chapter 13. Reform at the National Level, pg. 303*Chapter 14. Achieving Change, pg. 316*Summary, pg. 327*Notes, pg. 333

"Reclaiming the Game paints a disappointing picture of the negative influences of college athletics... Bowen and Levin demonstrate repeatedly that recruited athletes get preferential treatment in admissions despite lower SAT scores, underperform academically throughout college, choose easier majors and graduate at a lower percentage... [A]s the athletic-academic gap grows, the need for visionary leadership from college presidents becomes more pressing. Reclaiming the Game provides an excellent blueprint to do exactly what its title suggests."--Mark Luce, Chicago Tribune "A work of extensive research, impressive statistical analyses, and excellent writing."--John Savant, Commonweal "In the comprehensiveness of its research and the solidity of its argument, Reclaiming the Game breaks new ground and probably will become the most influential book in the field for many years... Unlike other proposals for the reform of college sports, Bowen and Levin's do not exist in a vacuum but have been tested in the real world. They actually work."--Murray Sperber, Academe "Rooted in convincing data, this powerful, thought-provoking work will likely receive wide national attention and will have a substantial impact on campus discussion."--Library Journal