The Price. What it takes to Win in College Football’s Era of Chaos. Armen Keteyian & John Talty.
As far as locating current books that cover the pulse of college football, Armen Keteyian’s The Price is about as precise of a match as one might read this year. Keteyian, a well-known long-time author, writer, sideline reporter extraordinaire, has partnered up with John Talty, a noteworthy writer in the south, to form a book that really does go to great lengths trying to explain the chaos that is college football in these turbulent but intriguing times.
The book is very reminiscent of The System which was published in 2013 by the same author Armen Keteyian. The system seemed to mostly explore random stories about players and some coaches making headways in college football at that time. However, The Price discusses a range of topics including several unexpected headline making events that are not necessarily dedicated just to the players. The dominant coaches of the era are featured prominently along with their stories leading up to their recent departures. Conference realignment is told from the perspective of an athletic director whose athletics program is caught right in the middle of unexpected and uncertain changes. The new concept of Name Image & Likeness was described from the perspective of a highly rated high school quarterback, and his agent, while being recruited by schools all over the country with not necessarily the best interests of the young player.
Keteyian and Talty tell a story in sections albeit disjointed form. One chapter does NOT necessarily lead directly into the next. In fact, the early sections of the book are revisited for the anticipated closure in later chapters all the way through the end. This is seemingly done to create the effect that many changes were occurring at the same time. In reality that is accurate when considering elite and dominating head coaches going in new directions, conferences realigning, NIL impacting the way players are recruited from high school and from the transfer portal, the have nots of college football scrambling and struggling to keep up with the newfangled rat race of this sport and even big time college administrators along with conference commissioners teetering to keep afloat in this far reaching sea of change.
The strength of the book is traced to the chapters explaining the saga of both Nick Saban at Alabama and Jim Harbaugh of Michigan. Both end up leaving their respective programs but for different reasons. The authors aptly explain how both inevitable departures unfold. Along the way, players, head coaches and even administrators are impacted as thoroughly noted throughout the alternating chapters in this manuscript.
Another intriguing section was getting the inside view from an athletic director in the now-dissected Pacific Ten conference. Keteyian and Talty reveal in those chapters how schools of that conference began to look out for themselves in this case. They explain how some of the administrators were blindsided and left holding the bag. The result being a brutal gutting of a once proud long standing athletic conference as asserted by the authors due to failing leadership and poor vision.
The Price unabashedly addresses the premier issues impacting college football of its time. This book is timely, informative and filled with intrigue from one chapter to the next. However, the problem with this kind of story is that it can age quickly especially when discussing a sport that is as volatile as college football has been this decade. This is a pretty good read, of about two hundred and twenty pages, and does not pull any punches or leave many stones unturned. We recommend, though, that the college fans, and others alike, read it soon before the next likely wave of transformation takes place to further cloud the wide-open era of college sports.
· You might like to read this book if you seek stories about Nick Saban and/or Jim Harbaugh.
· You might like to read this book if you are a fan of college football.
· You might like to read this book if you want to learn more about the frequent changes in the college football and sports world.
· You might like to read this book if you are interested in learning more about the impact of NIL and conference realignment.
Read more about the authors on X: https://x.com/ArmenKeteyian & https://x.com/JTalty
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