The New York Times bestseller about the state of college football: Why we love the game, what is at risk, and the fight to save itA fascinating saga (Booklist).In search of the sports old ideals amid the roaring flood of hypocrisy and greed, bestselling author John U. Bacon embedded himself in four college football programsPenn State, Ohio State, Michigan, and Northwesternand captured the oldest, biggest, most storied league, the Big Ten, at its tipping point. He sat in as coaches dissected game film, he ate dinner at training tables, and he listened in locker rooms. He talked with tailgating fans and college presidents, and he spent months in the company of the gifted young athletes who play the game. Fourth and Long reveals intimate scenes behind closed doors, from a teams angry face-off with their athletic director to a defensive lineman acing his masters exams in theoretical math. It captures the private moment when coach Urban Meyer earned the devotion of Ohio States Buckeyes on their way to a perfect season. It shows Michigans athletic department endangering the very traditions that distinguish the college game from all others.

And it re-creates the euphoria of the Northwestern Wildcats winning their first bowl game in decades. Most unforgettably, Fourth and Long finds what the national media missed in the ugly aftermath of Penn States tragic scandal: the unheralded story of players who joined forces with Coach Bill OBrien to save the universitys treasured programand with it, a piece of the games soul. This is the work of a writer in love with an old gamea game he sees at the precipice. Bacons deep knowledge of sports history and his sensitivity to the tribal subcultures of the college game power this elegy to a beloved and endangered American institution.