Campus, brand, and circus : a social history of college sports / Juan Javier Pescador, Michigan State University.

This book provides students with an historical perspective on relevant issues regarding college athletics. The text chronicles the evolution of collegiate sport while exploring topics including youth rituals, the legal status of college athletes, masculine identities, gender markers, leisure cultures, racial hierarchies, and more. It gives students a contemporary context for the study of college sports history, an overview of the inception of recreational and athletics activities by student associations in the 1800s, and insight into the rise of American football. The book addreses women in college sports, speaks to the African-American athlete experience, and examines the relationship between college sports and mass media. It also analyzes the consolidation of Big Time collegiate sports, namely football and basketball, as national brands in sports entertainment and its continued effects on American culture.