Victor Matheson, an economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross, says suppression of player compensation in American college football has created an inverse situation to that of overseas professional soccer leagues, which invest in talent above all else.

WSJ: College Sports and the Giant Albatross��Rachel Bachman

The story, which takes place in Memphis, Tennessee, concerns the transformation of Michael Oher, a black teen-ager whose mother was a crack addict, from a street kid to an All-American college football player, thanks to the intervention of the wealthy white Tuohy family.

NEWYORKER: The Blind Side

College football (American football) is one of the most popular forms of sporting competition in the USA. There are hundreds of college teams, but the top one hundred or so are organised into autonomous conferences under the broad leadership of the NCAA (think UEFA).

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Similar mental impairment among college students who play American football, or gridiron was found in a US study - with some athletes suffering long-term damage.

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Certainly, this is a positive story at a time when some other American sports are flailing (the National Basketball Association is on strike, college football is mired in a paedophile scandal).

ECONOMIST: Major League Soccer��s big investment seems to have paid off