From the first two chapters of J. Samuel Walker’s ACC Basketball, Walker gives us an in-depth view of how the ACC Conference came to be from the Southern Conference. Before the 1950’s the politics, crime, and dishonesty that were involved in early intercollegiate sports were plaguing conferences and institutions. My impression from what I have read so far is that Walker is trying to set the stage for later in the book by diving into each member school of the ACC, their origin story, and how the NCAA & Southern Conference were struggling to maintain integrity over intercollegiate sports.
At times, these two chapters were a little boring to read. The finer details of each school, who was involved, the president, etcetera, bogs down where the book should be focused, on the ACC itself, and the basketball rivalries that come with it. I understand that context and historical setting are important for setting this stage, however the early parts of this book could’ve been more streamlined to fit the narrative; or atleast the narrative I was expecting of ACC battles and rivalries.
Walker really gives a complete and detailed overview of the politics and figures that shaped early collegiate sports as a whole. There were lots of concerns of the corruption of academic integrity from the introduction of collegiate sports. Walker describes the unspoken struggle between professors and college coaches to win over university presidents’ hearts and wallets. From this analysis I draw a lot of parallels from the crises of collegiate sports conferences of the 1950’s to NCAA conference realignment we are witnessing today, in 2024.
Early college basketball had a weak governing body in the NCAA. Fixing games, points shaving, and under the table deals were common. In one instance, players were arrested in a points shaving scheme to win gamblers money. From this corruption in the sport, ideas of leaving the conference and starting new ones began to spawn. There were numerous questions at these early meetings to create a new conference like, should student-athletes get stipends? Who is allowed to receive scholarships and who isn’t? Will the emphasis on “student athletes” ruin the reputation of academic institutions? Does this sound familiar to the present day? I couldn’t help thinking about the parallels between NCAA Realignment and NIL of the present day.
I’m interested in where Walker takes this book as I read further. The first two chapters left a little to be desired and left me scratching my head thinking “What’s the point in telling the reader this?” I appreciate reading the parallels of yesterday’s collegiate sports issues with today’s issues, and how knowledgeable Walker is in the early stages of collegiate athletics. I hope that as the book continues the focus shifts entirely onto ACC Basketball itself and all it consists of, instead of the wide ranging take on early college athletics the book reads like in the beginning.
