Donald Trump recently proposed an idea on how to reform the NCAA’s payment structure for athletes. NCAA President Charlie Baker’s take is that he is “up for anything,” including Trump’s proposal of creating a commission.
“I think the fact that there’s an interest on the executive side on this, I think it speaks to the fact that everybody is paying a lot of attention right now to what’s going on in college sports,” Baker said, according to ESPN.
“I’m up for anything that can help us get somewhere.”
Baker isn’t the only one who thinks that Washington can help the NCAA get things under control.
“I think [Congress] can help us. I really do,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said in an interview with ACC Network. “We have been very bold in the desire for a national standard when it comes to name, image and likeness.
“We need to make sure that we have something that comes out of Washington that connects all 50 of the states because we’ve had a piecemeal project and it’s really undermined college sports. It’s been a race to the bottom. So that’s one.
“Two is we need some legal protection. We cannot sustain one legal case after another legal case after another legal case. A reaffirmation that these are student-athletes. Those three things to me will be very important to see if that can come out of the commission.”
Baker was asked if he thought the creation of a commission might increase the NCAA’s odds of receiving legislative assistance.
“I don’t have a crystal ball on that one. I don’t know. I do think, though, that it’s quite clear at this point that there are a lot of people interested in college sports, and we do need some help at some point to create some clarity around some of these issues in Washington.
“Creating clarity one lawsuit at a time is just a really bad way to try to move forward.”
