The Mark Emmert era is officially over, as new NCAA president Charlie Baker’s tenure begins Wednesday.
It’s a changing-of-the-guard moment for an organization that hasn’t seen its top leadership position turn over for more than a decade, and it comes at a critically important time.
Since he accepted the job back in December, Baker’s phone has been ringing quite a bit. He’s gotten calls from coaches, athletic directors and university presidents. What they want to talk about, mostly, is what everyone in college sports wants to talk about: name, image and likeness. Baker said that the “complete lack of transparency around all things NIL” is a major problem.
“One of the things I really would like to spend some time with the membership on and probably with some of the folks in Washington on is whether or not we can create some kind of consumer framework around this stuff to protect student-athletes and their families,” said Baker, former governor of Massachusetts. “I don’t even know if all the horrible stories people have told me are true, but I’ve heard enough stories at this point that sound pretty lousy to believe that at a minimum there should be transparency around these deals. There should be some way for a family and a student-athlete to figure out what…
