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A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s I would like to thank my editor, Greg Britton, for his excellent insights and suggestions and for his encouragement and support. His suggestion of the subtitle was especially helpful in sharpening my focus in preparing the manuscript. I would also like to thank Greg Nicholl for his assistance during the production process. I have appreciated the commitment to quality of all of the board members and professionals associated with Johns Hopkins University Press. In addition, I want to thank Towson University for granting me a sabbatical leave to complete a large portion of the preparation of this manuscript. Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts Irena Makarushka and my department chairs, Sam Collins and Beth Clifford, deserve special thanks for their encouragement to pursue a sabbatical to work on this project. There are many other colleagues, including Bill Tsitsos and Carol Caronna, who listened and responded to my comments about college sports and helped me develop my analysis. However, I must single out my closest colleague, my wife Sara Nixon. She is the best research and instructional librarian I know, and her constant encouragement and help motivated me to write this book and apply for a sabbatical to work on it. She is probably tired of all my recitations of my text as I sought to sharpen it and make it more compelling. I must add a word of thanks to my many sport sociology students. Their distinctive perspective of college sports always reminds me of the reason why we need to work harder to make college athletics more reflective of the interests of genuine student-athletes. This page intentionally left blank ...

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