The highest paid public employee in Utah—not to mention 31 other states—is a college football coach. For the journalist Gilbert Gaul, that fact is perfect evidence of the financial powerhouse that is college pigskin. In a new book, Gaul investigates how college football programs became “giant entertainment businesses that happen to do a little education on the side.” He joins us Tuesday. We’ll also talk to the sports economist David Berri about how student athletes are affected by all of this.
GUESTS
- Gilbert Gaul is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. He worked as an investigative journalist for The Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, and other news outlets for more than 35 years. His new book is called Billion-Dollar Ball: A Journey Through the Big-Money Culture of College Football [Amazon|Indiebound].
- David Berri is a professor of economics at Southern Utah University. He is the lead author of The Wages of Wins and Stumbling on Wins [Amazon|Indiebound]. He serves on the editorial board of both Journal of Sports Economics and the International Journal of Sport Finance.
