Recommendations approved by board for Division I reform
At the NCAA convention Thursday, outgoing President Mark Emmert said goodbye, incoming President Charlie Baker introduced himself and the state of college sports was declared perilous.
“As a collective enterprise, we are both thriving and threatened,” said Baylor President Linda Livingstone, who is the chairwoman of the NCAA’S Board of Governors.
Livingstone handled most of the annual state of college sports address with the NCAA in a period of both transition and transformation.
Earlier in the day, the Division I Board of Directors approved a host of recommendations intended to reform the top-tier of college sports, from membership standards to the size of championship brackets.
But Livingstone reiterated what has become a familiar refrain from college sports leaders during her time on stage, saying federal intervention is needed.
“We need a safe harbor to a certain degree from antitrust complaints,” she said. “We’re not looking for, nor do we need, a broad antitrust exemption. But we do need the ability to make common sense rules without limitless threats of litigation.”
Amid a patchwork of state laws, the NCAA is struggling to regulate the way athletes can now be compensated for the use of their names, images and likenesses. The association lifted its ban on athletes being paid by sponsors and endorsers in July 2021 and many within college sports worry it has quickly become a way to induce recruits or pay for play.
There are also multiple movements to grant college athletes employee status.
Livingstone said while it is essential college athletes not become employees of the schools in which they attend, that doesn’t mean they couldn’t eventually be compensated.
“That’s one of the questions that we’re working on, trying to answer that question,” she said during a news conference after her address. “It’s why protection of the status of our student-athletes is so important, that they be viewed as sort of a unique status on our campus, that they would not be employees.”
Baker, the former Republican governor of Massachusetts, was brought in to lead the NCAA because of his reputation as a consensus builder in a mostly Democratic state.
He conceded getting federal legislation passed is challenging, but not having it might not be an option.
“I do believe that there are serious issues with just letting this train run without doing something to deal with the consequences that are currently facing college sports,” he said in the news conference after he briefly addressed membership.
Baker doesn’t start until March 1. He attended the convention on a mini-listening tour. He said his notes over the last few days of meeting with NCAA staff, school administrators, conference commissioners and athletes filled an entire notebook.