A sitting governor would, at just about any previous point in NCAA history, be considered an outside-of-the-box hire for the organization’s most public-facing role.
But the long history of the NCAA doesn’t match its current needs. That has been obvious for years, as college sports’ governing body backed itself into a corner amid mounting internal and external pressures.
So it is only fitting that the NCAA turned to Charlie Baker, the current governor of Massachusetts who is set to wrap up his second term in the first week of January. He will officially take over as the NCAA president on March 1, 2023, replacing Mark Emmert after a tenure more than a decade long.
As it turns out, this particular job at this particular time does need political expertise. Baker fits squarely in the box after all.
“College sports is really at a crossroads,” said Baylor president Linda Livingstone, who chairs the NCAA’s Board of Governors, on Thursday. “We all know that the challenges that we face are big. They’re complex, and they’re urgent, as we think about the future of college athletics, in legal, political and cultural environments that have changed drastically over the decades, and we need to build the sustainable model for college athletics. … That’s going to take the…
