Available Formats
The Price: What It Takes to Win in College Football's Era of Chaos
By (Author) Armen Keteyian
By (author) John Talty
HarperCollins Publishers Inc
HarperPaperbacks
1st January 2026
United States
General
Non Fiction
Sports training and coaching
American football
Paperback
352
Width 135mm, Height 203mm
295g
An explosive tell-all book.Sports Illustrated
This is a must-read masterpiece.Paul Finebaum, ESPN college football analyst and New York Times bestselling author
Two of the nations most respected sports journalists team up for a vital, hard-hitting investigation into the tumultuous state of big-time college football.
We are living in the Wild West of college sports. Name, Image and Likeness endorsements, the transfer portal, collectives, conference realignment, the powerful influence of media companies have all rendered the notion of amateur athletics a quaint relic of the past, replaced by a Brave New World where money and self-interest rule.
The Price is a sweeping, in-depth, thought-provoking look at an inflection point in big-time college football. Six time New York Times bestselling author Armen Keteyian and award-winning national college football reporter John Talty conducted more than two hundred wide-ranging interviews with head coaches, athletic directors, conference commissioners, administrators, politicians, power brokers, agents and media executives from one corner of the sport to the other. They reveal never-before-reported details on major players such as Nick Saban, Jim Harbaugh, Kirby Smart, Jimbo Fisher, and Lane Kiffin. Keteyian and Taltys reporting also lays bare the machinations that destroyed the historic conference that was the Pac-12, purely in the name of greed.
As the sports premier coaches race for the exits, Keteyian and Talty reveal deep, dark truths about a beloved game under siegeand the financial, physical, emotional and psychological toll taken on everyone whose dreams and fortunes often depend on the final score on a Saturday afternoon.
This is a must-read masterpiece. At college footballs most critical moment, John Talty and Armen Keteyian have delivered a blockbusterthe definitive, spellbinding, never-before-told story of the sports wildest period. Paul Finebaum, ESPN college football analyst andNew York Timesbestselling author of My Conference Can Beat Your Conference: Why the SEC Still Rules College Football No one has chronicled the increasingly bizarre world of college football with greater depth, breadth, and clarity than Armen Keteyian has.Here Keteyian and John Talty bring perspective to our current hypercharged era, with its unprecedented money, exposure, and pressure, while managing to personalize the price paid by those who still care about the sports soul. The chapters on the Michigan-Harbaugh saga alone justify the purchase of this great book. I wish Id written it. John U. Bacon, New York Times bestselling author of Overtime: Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines at the Crossroads of College Football "An explosive tell-all book." Sports Illustrated "If you really want to know whats going on in college football in the NIL era you MUST read The Price . . . . Gives you the inside scoop on everything and brilliantly told." Seth Davis, New York Times bestselling author and college basketball reporter for CCBS Sports "Beyond fascinating. As in every page and chapter is incredible." Tom Crean, former Indiana basketball coach and current ESPN analyst "Just finished The Price, which has a ton of revealing and interesting details about modern college football and the state of college athletics as a whole. For DMV readers specifically, there's a ton about UMD football's quest to float and then swim." Jesse Dougherty, college sports writer for the Washington Post A great read full of incredible stories." Marc Daniels,co-host The Beat of Sports Show, WYGM-AM, Orlando, FL A tremendous book. A must read for college football fans." Matt Josephs, Host, The Matt Josephs Show, WXGI-AM, Richmond, VA A fantastic read." Glenn Clark, Host, Glenn Clark Radio podcast, Baltimore, MD Insightful and powerful." Ron Barr, Host, Sports Byline USA An explosive behind-the-scenes look at the chaotic state of big-time college football. David Lamb, Anchor, CBS42, Birmingham, AL "Outstanding. Excellent overview of the current state of college football & how we got here, but also some wild stories & anecdotes fans of any team will enjoy." Creg Stephenson, AL.com sports writer
Armen Keteyian is an eleven-time Emmy Award-winning journalist and the author or coauthor of six New York Times bestsellers, including The System and Tiger Woods. He lives in Connecticut. John Talty is the national college football writer for CBS Sports and 247Sports and the author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller The Leadership Secrets of Nick Saban. He lives in Alabama.