From the New York Times, this is the Daily.

I'm Natalie Kittroef, in for Sabrina Tabernisi.

Tonight. Tonight, millions of Americans will tune in to watch one of the biggest sports events of the year,

college football's national championship game. On the year, college football's national championship game.

On the field, the game will be determined by the skill of the players and coaches.

But behind the scenes, secretive groups of donors are wielding enormous influence

over what fans will see. Today my colleague David Ferrethold on the shadowy

industry upending college football and how it's brought amateur

athletics even closer to the world of professional sports. It's Monday, January 8th.

David, hi.

Hi, Natalie, it's nice to be here.

So you're an investigative reporter at the New York Times and recently you've been looking into the world of college sports.

Tell me why.

Well, college sports is to me with fascinating

subject because there's so much money involved here.

I think people have this sense that college sports is amateur athletics,

but the amounts of money brought in to these college football

programs particularly are in the billions of dollars.

I'm an investigative reporter covering nonprofits.

Obviously colleges are nonprofits, so it's one of the biggest businesses that nonprofits carry out.

And there's also a personal connection for me.

I'm a huge college sports fan and the team I follow is the

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