Surprised to learn that this was the last of the 30-for-30 docs, since it did not feel especially polished.
The documentary was very "noisy" - a lot of short sound bites from various people, Skip Bayless and the like, the doc would cut away to someone else (saying the same basic thing) after every sentence. Jarring. The doc is nearly two hours long; you can do some long- form storytelling! It doesn't have to be ADD-compliant!
Didn't seem like the filmmakers uncovered anything new. They talked to a bunch of people who were involved in the scandals, or covered them at the time, and used a ton of old news footage. The scandal was old enough where I didn't really know much about it, but they didn't seem to be seeking any new information about what was going on that wasn't already in the public domain.
Related; it was implied that ALL the schools were involved in similar shenanigans; why not spend a little time looking into that? Talk to some people at Texas, or wherever. You know there were rumors about other schools; talk to some journalists who were looking into them, or see if you can find some disgruntled former players or boosters who might be willing to fill in some broader context.
The doc never asked or considered the most important question; what was so bad about what the school and the players were doing? You had kids whose families were in very tough financial circumstances; is it really problematic that they took a little money being offered to them? The NCAA is one of the most hypocritical organizations on the planet; they're right up there with FIFA. Now, you obviously should not have players getting paid under the table by boosters, but shouldn't the question at least be asked; is it appropriate for players at these schools to BE compensated in some form?
The filmmakers just seemed to implicitly assume that the NCAA's rules are unassailable, and that's just nonsense.
The documentary was "too small." It did not consider the broader questions - Texas football culture and WHY these boosters have so much power. Whether there are issues with the NCAA's rules. Really looking into how prevalent these types of payments were at other schools, in the conference and across the country. Considering why, decades later, guys like Reggie Bush were still getting paid. Has anything really changed?