Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker to be next NCAA president

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Head of the ncaa

Baker will succeed Mark Emmert as the president of the nation’s biggest college sports regulatory organization, which oversees over 500,000 athletes at more than 1,100 institutions, the NCAA said on Thursday.

Republican Baker has served as Massachusetts’ governor since that year. A year ago, he said that he would not run for office again. His current position will finish in January, and he will begin a new one in March.

He has never had a job in collegiate athletics.

On a video conference call with reporters, Baker said, “I must confess that when I was first asked about this, my immediate thought was that I was not really what you would call a typical candidate.

Some of the qualities that have made Baker a successful governor, such as his capacity for compromise with a Democratic-controlled Legislature and his more moderate stance on many social issues, have been perceived as putting an end to a GOP aspiration for higher office that has sharply turned to the right.

Developing agreement among multiple constituencies, alliances, and factions during his tenure in state office, according to Baker, should assist him lead a diverse organization with a diversified set of goals.

I do believe there are serious issues here, Baker remarked.

He said that around two months ago, the search company for the NCAA contacted him.

According to Baylor President Lind Livingston, who serves as the chairperson of the NCAA Board of Governors, “When you examine the goals that we have right now in the NCAA, it’s hard to imagine a greater match than Governor Baker.” He shown a propensity for working across party lines as a public servant, bringing Bay Staters of all stripes together to accomplish great things.

In announcing the appointment, the NCAA touted Baker’s strong popularity ratings as the Republican governor in a blue state. He will now represent a group that is becoming more despised and is seen as standing in the way of players receiving a fair portion of the millions of cash made by major college sports.

Emmert, who oversaw the NCAA for 12 years during a turbulent period, announced his resignation earlier this year. The NCAA is undergoing a comprehensive makeover as it attempts to decentralize the way collegiate sports are managed after suffering legal setbacks and political criticism.

Continuing the story

Since the NCAA repealed its restriction on players being allowed to earn endorsement money in 2021, college sports officials, including Emmert, have regularly requested assistance from Congress to govern name, image, and likeness compensation (NIL).

For the first time, a politician will now be in charge of the organization.

When asked about whether college sports required government intervention and whether a model could include athletes being paid, something schools have long opposed while arguing that it would upend the amateur sports model that is the cornerstone of college athletics, Baker mostly avoided getting into specifics.

Before I go into the specifics of some of these queries, I’m going to wait until I really have the position and have had some talks, Baker said. The opportunity and access that collegiate athletics provide to so many people, as well as the experiences and learning that come with them, are, in my opinion, the crown jewels of the sport.

Baker graduated from Harvard, where he played basketball, after attending high school in Massachusetts and upstate New York. His wife, Lauren, was a collegiate gymnast, and he also has two boys who played college football.

His involvement in collegiate athletics has only been to that point.

Emmert and the late Myles Brand, the previous two NCAA presidents, took office after serving as presidents of their respective universities. Before then, former collegiate sports administrators had often occupied the position.

It was obvious that the president of the association’s job was changing as the NCAA entered a new phase and collegiate athletics became more professionally run.

Emmert and other executives in college athletics have spent a lot of time in Washington recently, looking for a government statute to regulate the NIL and a limited antitrust exemption for the NCAA.

The NCAA has relied on broad regulations that forbid pay-for-play and recruitment inducements to deal with NIL remuneration, but there aren’t any specific, standardized procedures in place. More than 30 states have established their own NIL laws, creating a patchwork of restrictions that are difficult to police.

In light of possible concerns with long-term health care and income sharing for players, some federal politicians have voiced a willingness to go further into collegiate sports than NIL.

The majority of the NCAA’s recent $1 billion in income came from its media rights agreement for the men’s Division I basketball tournament. Most of the money made by the NCAA is returned to the institutions via the conferences.

The main leagues that host high-level college football get billions as well. The FBS division of Division I football operates mostly outside of the NCAA. This includes the College Football Playoff, which will soon include 12 teams instead of the current four.

The CEO of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, Amy Privette Perko, said that Baker’s main problem would be determining whether or not major college football can continue to exist under the NCAA’s jurisdiction.

According to Perko, “The NCAA earns zero revenue from the CFP, but it remains responsible for the legal and medical expenses associated with FBS football.” “The core of much of the debate over the future of all collegiate sports is the increase of income, specifically for FBS football,”

During Emmert’s leadership, the NCAA became more and more embroiled in political controversy. The NCAA took a similar decision when state legislatures tried to roll back safeguards for members of the LGBTQ community and removed its championship games from those states over their official usage of the Confederate flag.

Because of its regulations allowing transgender athletes to participate for national championships, the NCAA came under fire from certain conservatives.

Baker will take the helm of a company that is figuring out its leadership and governance style. In the meanwhile, interest in collegiate athletics has never been higher.

When attempting to have a conversation about what the greatest approach to guarantee that what we now have is not lost in the future is, he stated, “that in some ways, I believe, is an incredible value.”

The first mention of Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker as the new NCAA president was on NBCSports.com.

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