Fourth and Long: The Fight for the Soul of College Football

"The stakes couldn't be higher" -- Paterno's legacy -- Urban's story -- The outsider -- Four teams, four goals -- Night of the lettermen -- We know who we are -- "It all starts Saturday" -- Pain at the pleasure dome -- The brainiac bowl -- "If we could just win one" -- The richest rivalry -- A toast to open hearts -- Inferno at the Horseshoe -- Sing to the colors -- It matters to us -- "All the things we admire" -- The battle for the brown jug -- "You can't manufacture tradition" -- "Twenty years from now, this is what we'll all be talking about" -- Epilogue : "How much money do they need?";Bacon take a warts-and-all look at the present and future of college football. He embedded himself in four programs: Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, and Northwestern. He ate dinner at training tables, and he listened in locker rooms. None of Bacon's discoveries is more poignant than this: the last, true defenders of the student-athlete ideal are the players themselves, who, even as money changes everything around them, are left to carry the future of the league, the game, and more than a century of tradition on their backs every fall Saturday.;For the millions of fans who celebrate the game-day heroics of the student athletes that give college football its heart and soul, bestselling author John U. Bacon's "Fourth and Long," a warts-and-all look at the present and future of the game, gives them reason to still believe.