As Charlie Baker takes over as president of the NCAA, he brings a different way of thinking about one of the most important and polarizing issues in college athletics: regulating how student-athletes monetize their fame.
To Baker, athletes such as quarterback recruit Jaden Rashada and Miami Hurricanes basketball players Haley and Hanna Cavinder are consumers who need help in a burgeoning name, image and likeness market. That market currently lacks transparency and uniformity, and the athletes would benefit from legal protections to ward off unqualified, unaccountable and even unscrupulous actors.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Baker paraphrased a quote he read recently from an athletic director: “The only thing that’s true about NIL is everybody’s lying and whatever you hear about it, basically, don’t believe it.”
“And I think that creates enormous challenges for student-athletes and for families,” Baker said.
Baker, the former governor of Massachusetts, was hired in December and started the job officially Wednesday. Getting a handle on NIL compensation is at the top of his to-do list, as it has roiled the NCAA’s vast membership of 1,100 schools like few other issues. Like his predecessor, Mark Emmert, Baker said the NCAA needs help from Congress in the form of a federal law to govern NIL.