Ronald A. Smith, author of the recent book Pay for Play: A History of Big-Time College Athletic Reform and professor emeritus of sports history at Penn State University, supplied the closing quote in today’s Chronicle of Higher Education piece on Penn State football’s child sex abuse scandal.

“The more important it is, the more likely there will be a cover-up. . . . I’m not very proud of Penn State and how it reacted to this. I’m pretty disappointed, and so are a whole lot of people.”

Dr. Smith’s timely book traces attempts at college athletics reform from 1855 through the early twenty-first century while analyzing the different roles played by students, faculty, conferences, university presidents, the NCAA, legislatures, and the Supreme Court.