The Real Price of Glory: Gerald Gurney’s Ethical Indictment of Intercollegiate Athletics

Gerald Gurney’s The Cost of Winning: An Insider’s Perspective on Exploitation and Greed in College Sports is a powerful and timely indictment of the ethical and financial dysfunction in NCAA Division I athletics. Drawing from decades of experience in academic advising and compliance, Gurney delivers a reflective yet scathing critique of a system that prioritizes winning, revenue, and prestige at the expense of athlete welfare and educational integrity. His analysis reveals how institutional complicity, inflated coaching salaries, the academic-athletic eligibility divide, and misleading graduation metrics distort the purpose of higher education. Combining narrative depth with scholarly relevance, The Cost of Winning serves as both a resource for sport ethics pedagogy and a call to action for stakeholders in intercollegiate athletics. Ultimately, Gurney offers not only critique but also hope, grounded in stories of resilience, mentorship, and the possibility of a system that truly serves its students.