Proposal to create new tier for big-money college sports is just a start, NCAA president says
LAS VEGAS– NCAA President Charlie Baker said Wednesday that his proposal to allow the most resourced schools in Division I to pay athletes through a trust fund is just a starting point as he tries to make the association more proactive than reactive.
“We have to be able to anticipate where the conversations are going and try to get a big, big, diverse 180-member committee with 2,000 members — like oh, my God! – to a place where they're talking about things that are common, and not just commenting and reacting to other people's agendas,” Baker said during an appearance at Sports Business Journal's Intercollegiate Athletic Forum.
On Monday, Baker laid out an aggressive and potentially groundbreaking vision for a new NCAA subdivision at the top of college sports in a letter he sent to the more than 350 Division I schools.
“Some people will say you're going too far and people will say, but you're not going far enough,” Baker said. “I promise you that this will be the place where the most dialogue about this will take place in the short term.”
Baker's proposal would require schools that want to be part of the new tier of DI to pay their athletes tens of thousands of dollars a year on top of their athletic scholarships. Baker also suggested that all Division I schools should implement name, image and likeness compensation for their athletes internally through group licensing agreements and remove all restrictions on the educational benefits schools can provide to athletes.
Baker said the proposal emerged from an amalgamation of conversations he has had with administrators and athletes from across college sports.
Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey noted that he did not see Baker's letter until it came out Tuesday.
He said any efforts to reform college sports will be tackled in five arenas: the courts, Congress, state legislatures, conferences and the NCAA.
“These all need to be part of the solution,” Sankey said.
Baker said he believes about 100 schools could consider opting for a new subdivision.
There are 133 schools in the top level of Division 1, the Football Bowl Subdivision. Baker's proposal appears to target about half of the schools competing in the five power conferences. That number of conferences will shrink to four after the recent realignments take effect next year, but it will still include about 65 schools.
Baker said the differences in budget sizes in Division I, and even Divisions II and III, have traditionally led to conflict within the NCAA. He wants the schools that have the ability to spend more on their athletes to have the freedom to do so.
“Recognizing that we are trying to support a big tent approach, but as you saw yesterday in Charlie's memo, there is a new reality here,” Sankey said.
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