College Basketball

When college basketball teams make it to the NCAA tournament, they say they're "going to the dance". John Feinstein's riveting new book is the story of the last dance: the Final Four. There is no event in sports quite like it. The Final Four draws millions to their televisions and thousands to a chosen city; attendance is topped only by the Super Bowl. It is the epicenter of sports madness, a circus of media, coaches, and fans swirling around the four teams talented enough to have made it to the end.

Colleges provide over $12 billion in financial aid and scholarships annually. Of this, $2.7 billion is awarded each year for athletic scholarships. Only six percent of high school athletes compete for that $2.7 billion. Score College Scholarships is produced from the perspective of a college applicant, who received multiple offers and earned six scholarships. With the help of this book, student-athletes, and their parents will learn the most effective strategies to get noticed by college coaches, balance academic and athletic considerations, and choose the "best fit" school.

Among many legendary episodes from the life and career of men's basketball coach Dean Smith, few loom as large as his recruitment of Charlie Scott, the first African American scholarship athlete at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Drawn together by college basketball in a time of momentous change, Smith and Scott helped transform a university, a community, and the racial landscape of sports in the South.

As the revenues generated by big-time college sports continue to skyrocket, virtually all of the debate involves whether (and how much) student-athletes should be paid for play. Kenneth L. Shropshire and Collin D. Williams Jr., argue that "student" has to come first: the focus should be on prioritizing a meaningful education. They draw on new research to reveal that it has become increasingly difficult for college athletes to balance school and sports, much less a social life, leading to serious economic, professional, and emotional consequences for young people.