Aug 9, 2013; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Eagles running back Bryce Brown (34) celebrates scoring during the second quarter against the New England Patriots at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Armen Keteyian, a correspondent for CBS News, has a new book coming out called “The System” in which he details some of the nastier part of college athletics. In this book he mentions former Kansas State transfer Bryce Brown and the Missouri tutoring system that resulted in Derrick Washington going to prison.
The bit on Brown is expected to detail the odd way in which Brown ended up playing for Lane Kiffin at Tennessee. There are suggestions of both money and sex being used to lure in Brown.
"[Lacey Pearl] Earps details the bizarre system of the hostess business, where pretty, personable, well-trained college women are used as bait to lure top talent. Even if they don’t have physical relationships with high school players (and some certainly do), they are encouraged to engage in at least pseudo romantic relationships through social media, text and Skype for months on end. All of this comes with the approval and encouragement of athletic department officials and highly paid coaches.“Our job was to flirt with them,” Earps said."
Some suggest the relationship Brown had with a woman at Tennessee is part of the reason why Brown had trouble getting on the field at Kansas State, but that has never been substantiated.
The bit on Missouri’s tutoring program ranged from fraud to a “sexually charged environment.”
"Even worse is the story of the University of Missouri student-athlete tutoring culture, which is paramount in keeping players eligible for competition. “The System” lays out the profoundly bad idea of college girls being paired with football and basketball players – who are often academically disinterested and physically exhausted – for apparently lightly supervised one-on-one work.The result: an environment of sexually provocative conversations; rampant hook-ups; tutors just doing the athletes’ schoolwork themselves; and, most terribly, in the case of star running back Derrick Washington, a 2010 sexual assault of his clean-cut, serious-minded tutor that sent him to prison."
Dan Wetzel provided the quotes you see above. You can read the rest of his story here.
Keteyian is a noted journalist who has spent time as a ’60 Minutes’ correspondent. He has won 11 Emmys for his reporting and has written several investigative books.
The System: The Glory and Scandal of Big-Time College Football is due to be out September 17.