About this item
A searing exposé of how the multibillion dollar college sports empire fails universities, students, and athletes.With little public debate or introspection, our institutions of higher learning have become hostages to the rapacious, smash-mouth entertainment conglomerate known, quaintly, as intercollegiate athletics. In Champions Way, New York Times investigative reporter Mike McIntire chronicles the rise of this growing scandal through the experience of the Florida State Seminoles, one of the most successful teams in NCAA history.A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his Times investigation of college sports, McIntire breaks new ground here, uncovering the workings of a system that enables athletes to violate academic standards and avoid criminal prosecution for actions ranging from shoplifting to drunk driving. At the heart of Champions Way is the untold story of a whistle-blower, Christie Suggs, and her wrenching struggle to hold a corrupt system to account. Together with shocking new details about prominent sports figures, including NFL quarterback Jameis Winston and former FSU coach Bobby Bowden, Champions Way shines a light on the ethical, moral, and legal compromises inherent in the making of a championship sports program.Beyond the story of Florida State, McIntire takes readers on a journey through the history of college football, from its origins as a roughneck pastime coached by nineteenth-century professors to its current incarnation as a gold-plated behemoth that long ago outgrew its scholastic environs. Illuminated in rich and disturbing detail is the hidden financial ecosystem that nourishes hundred-million-dollar teams, from the hustlers who recruit players for schools and the athletic departments controlled by rich boosters to the universities whose academic mission and moral authority have been undermined. More than pointing out flaws, McIntire examines their causes and offers hope to those who would reform college sports.
About the Author
Mike McIntire is an investigative reporter, author and editor. As a member of the investigative unit at The New York Times, he shared the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for reporting on covert Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election.
After graduating college in 1985 with a degree in political science, Mike replied to a help-wanted ad for a reporter's position at his hometown weekly newspaper. There, he developed an affinity for the detective work of journalism and the requirements of storytelling that go with it. He's never looked back since.
In a wide-ranging journalism career, Mike has covered New York City Hall, presidential campaigns, political corruption, the cop beat, Wall Street fraud and international terrorism. Along the way, he has garnered a reputation for fearless and thorough reporting on subjects that impact people's lives and hold powerful institutions to account.
In 2015, his investigation, along with colleague Walt Bogdanich, of the mishandling of criminal cases involving athletes at Florida State University was a Pulitzer finalist. He was also a member of the team that won a Pulitzer for coverage of the downfall of Gov. Elliot Spitzer in 2009. Before joining the Times in 2003, he was the investigative editor at The Hartford Courant, where he shared a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting, and was a Pulitzer finalist for investigative reporting on medical malpractice.
Mike has also been a national writer at the Associated Press in New York, and a reporter and editor at several Connecticut newspapers. A graduate of Hartwick College in New York, Mike
teaches investigative reporting at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.
