NCAA president: Proposal to create new tier for big-money faculty sports activities only a begin

LAS VEGAS — A day after NCAA President Charlie Baker made an aggressive and probably groundbreaking pitch to permit some colleges to pay their athletes, his proposal was met with reward, warning and questions from round faculty sports activities.

“I think Charlie has indicated his intent for that to begin a discussion,” Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey stated Wednesday throughout an look on the Sports Business Journal’s Intercollegiate Athletic Forum. “There’s certainly a lot of content included from which to begin a discussion.”

On Tuesday, Baker laid forth an aggressive and probably groundbreaking imaginative and prescient for a brand new NCAA subdivision on the very high of faculty sports activities in a letter he despatched to the greater than 350 Division I colleges.

Baker stated his proposal to permit essentially the most extremely resourced colleges in Division I to pay athletes via a belief fund is simply a place to begin as he tries to shift the affiliation to be extra proactive than reactive.

“We need to be able to anticipate where conversations are going and to try to get this big, huge, diverse 180-committee with 2,000 members — like oh, my God! — to a place where they’re talking about stuff that’s common, and not just responding and reacting to other people’s agendas,” Baker stated throughout his 30-minute session on the discussion board.

Baker’s proposal would require colleges that need to be part of a brand new tier of D-I to decide to paying their athletes tens of 1000’s of {dollars} per 12 months on high of athletic scholarships.

He additionally recommended all Division I colleges ought to convey title, picture and likeness compensation for his or her athletes in-house via group licensing and take away limits on instructional advantages colleges can present for athletes.

“Some people are going to say you’re going too far and people will say but you’re not going far enough,” Baker stated. “I promise you that’s going to be where most of the dialogue on this will be in the short term.”

Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark referred to as Baker’s proposal “directionally correct.”

“We hired Charlie to lead and he’s leading,” Yormark stated.

Baker stated the proposal was fashioned from an amalgamation of conversations he has had with directors and athletes from throughout faculty sports activities.

Sankey famous he didn’t see Baker’s letter till it went out Tuesday.

Sankey stated any try to reform faculty sports activities will probably be addressed in 5 arenas: the courts, Congress, state legislatures, conferences and the NCAA.

“All of those have to be part of the solution,” Sankey stated.

Baker stated he believes about 100 colleges may contemplate opting into a brand new subdivision.

There are 133 colleges in Division 1 soccer’s highest tier, the Football Bowl Subdivision. Baker’s proposal appears focused at about half these colleges that compete within the 5 energy conferences. That variety of conferences is shrinking to 4 after current realignment strikes go into impact subsequent 12 months, however it’ll nonetheless embody about 65 colleges.

College sports activities leaders, together with Baker, have been lobbying lawmakers in Washington for a federal regulation that may create a nationwide normal for NIL compensation, exempt athletes from gaining worker standing and, extra broadly, permit the NCAA to control faculty sports activities with out the specter of fixed authorized and political challenges.

“Whatever plan emerges, will have to incorporate, probably, some college athletes as employees,” stated Mit Winter, a sports activities and leisure lawyer primarily based in Kanas City, Missouri.

The NCAA is transferring towards passing its personal detailed NIL guidelines in January. No matter what the affiliation does, Baker stated, it nonetheless will want federal safety.

Baylor President Linda Livingstone stated faculty sports activities leaders want to point out lawmakers they’ve a plan to direct extra of the billions of {dollars} that move into main faculty athletics, largely towards main faculty soccer and basketball, towards athletes.

“If Congress sees us saying ‘hey, we want to benefit them more financially, but we believe keeping them from being employees helps us to support them in different ways and maybe better ways,’ I think we might be able to get some of that protection that probably we won’t get otherwise,” Livingstone stated.

Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner Jim Phillips stated Baker wants now to collect help from numerous constituencies, from college presidents to athletic administrators to coaches.

“It’s not going to please everybody and maybe some (schools) can and can’t do certain things,” Phillips stated. “So it’s important now to get a reaction from the missive that Charlie sent.”

Baker stated variations in price range sizes throughout Division I have historically brought on conflicts within the NCAA. He desires colleges which have the power to spend extra on their athletes to be free achieve this.

The concern amongst some in faculty sports activities is that permitting the wealthiest colleges to wield that energy will create insurmountable aggressive benefits.

“Recognizing that we’re trying to be supportive as to a big tent approach but, as you saw yesterday with Charlie’s memo, there’s a new reality here,” Sankey stated.

Amy Perko, CEO of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, stated she wonders whether or not colleges inside the energy conferences will probably be compelled to have fewer groups to allow them to direct extra money to income producing sports activities.

“You don’t want to create an incentive for those to drop sports,” she stated.