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The unrivaled amount of cash poured into the college athletic system has made sports programs breeding grounds for corruption while diverting crucial resources from the academic mission of universities. Like money in Washington politics, the influence bought by a complex set of self-interested actors seriously undermines movement toward reform while trapping universities in a cycle of escalating competition. Longtime sport sociologist Howard L. Nixon II approaches the issue from the perspective of college presidents -- how they are seduced by prestige or pressured by economics into building programs that move schools toward a commercial model of athletics.Nixon situates his analysis in the context of what he calls "the intercollegiate golden triangle," a powerful social network of athletic, media, and private corporate commercial interests.