NCAA President Charlie Baker points to progress, future action in first State of College Sports address

Nearing the end of his first State of College Sports address Wednesday, NCAA President Charlie Baker shared with a packed theater at the NCAA Convention in Phoenix the simplest advice he has learned from his 95-year-old father: "It's not going to fix itself."

For the former two-term Massachusetts governor, who touted being quite familiar with finding solutions in complicated settings throughout his career in health care, government and politics, Baker now faces perhaps his greatest challenge to date: fixing — and preserving — college athletics.

This was not the first time more than 2,600 administrator and student-athlete attendees were addressed by Baker at the annual Convention. Last January, two months before he would begin his term as the leader of the Association, the incoming president briefly addressed the membership in more of a casual, meet-and-greet fashion. He talked about how important it was going to be to put the interests of student-athletes first. He also stressed the importance of listening to the needs of the membership.

One year later, and after more than 120 conversations with leaders of all 97 conferences across the three divisions, Baker celebrated in his first Convention speech 10 significant accomplishments the Association has achieved in the 10 months since he took office.

True to his promise, a number of the initiatives centered around the health and well-being of student-athletes.

Baker lauded Division I leadership and the recommendations put forth by the Transformation Committee last year, which, starting this August, will require all Division I schools to provide student-athletes with a 10-year scholarship commitment to complete their undergraduate degree, a guaranteed scholarship that cannot be taken away if a student-athlete is injured or stops playing, and access to mental health services designed by medical experts.

"Student-athletes said they wanted better mental health support, and this week the NCAA adopted an updated set of Mental Health Best Practices," Baker announced. "Schools will rely on these as they provide mental health support to their student-athletes. This report is the end product of two years of work by an outstanding panel of experts and comes on the heels of a series of webinars sponsored by the NCAA across all three divisions."

Baker, who publicly thanked student-athlete leaders for using their voices and the Board of Governors for listening to them and following through, also noted student-athletes across all three divisions will have access this August to two years of injury insurance coverage for athletic injuries that require treatment after they leave school.

A large part of the speech focused on a topic that Baker has continued to connect to student-athlete mental health: sports betting.

He acknowledged that both the penalties and educational materials provided by the national office are "outdated," while also calling the penalties "too harsh" on young people and the materials "ineffective." Alluding to the problem not fixing itself, Baker discussed the strides the Association has taken to expand access for student-athletes to online tools and in-person educational forums, while also addressing the need to monitor harassment and online abuse through the recent collaboration with Signify's Threat Matrix service. 

"Sports betting is basically everywhere, especially on campuses. And the harm it can cause is real," Baker said. "Every conversation about the team, the competition and the health and well-being of their teammates is not just chatter anymore but currency for some and inside information for others."

Baker also offered news that the Association is nearing an agreement with the NFL in which the league and the NCAA will better educate coaches and student-athletes on the challenges posed by sports betting. Furthermore, Baker plans to reach out to his former gubernatorial colleagues to discuss collaboration on state legislation that protects the players and participants, as well as the integrity of the games they play.

And while sports betting is prevalent in the college sports landscape, so too is the passionate fan base that has shown staggering growth in attendance, viewership and engagement, particularly in women's sports. Baker beamed when sharing metrics that included more than a million new followers on the NCAA's social platforms, 4 billion impressions and 263 million engagements — numbers that more than doubled those from a year before.

He credited those numbers, along with the NCAA's recent media rights deal with ESPN that is valued at three times more than the current agreement signed 14 years ago, to the growth of women's basketball and women's volleyball. The Association has made a significant investment in those two sports, along with a commitment in the digital space to men's and women's soccer this past fall. Baker also said the new ESPN deal will make it possible to begin discussing a revenue distribution units program for women's basketball teams that participate in March Madness.

But while Baker is thrilled with the expanding fan base, he concedes that the NCAA is not properly equipped to communicate with fans. In likely what is one of his largest initiatives to date, Baker announced that the NCAA has secured a partnership with KAGR, a leading sports technology firm that works with teams and leagues from every professional sport. 

"With their help, we're going to build one of the largest college sports fans databases in the country — and possibly the largest women's sports fan database in the world," Baker said. "We should be able to provide timely, useful, actionable information to college sports fans about the teams, conferences, championships and sports they're interested in on a personalized basis."

He went on to project that the fan database could have as many as 10 million fans by the time he takes the Convention stage again next January.

Enhancing championships and improving access to college sports was also a theme of the speech. Baker touted the current trial agreement with HUDL to stream 200 Division II championships this year, along with long-term strategies to address the officiating shortage across all sports and the untapped market of local sponsorships where NCAA championships are conducted. In terms of access, he celebrated that the Association's coaches academies and the NCAA Inclusion Forum quickly filled up this past year and noted the national office's Postgraduate Internship Program achieved 100% job placement. In a nod to the newest Olympic sport, Baker also hopes to light the flame of opportunity surrounding women's flag football and see what support the NCAA can offer before the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

Baker closed his address focusing on the topic of name, image and likeness opportunities and how imperative it is for the membership to take actions in Phoenix that will help bring clarity and consumer protections for student-athletes and their families.

"While there is more work to be done on NIL, these reforms cannot come soon enough," he said.

He stressed that the Association is open to exploring ways that Division I schools, in particular those with the greatest resources, can provide more opportunity and value to the student-athlete. To meet that standard, Baker noted that congressional action is needed.

"To maximize these opportunities, it will be important for Congress to provide special status to student-athletes. That way, schools and conferences can engage in NIL and enhanced educational support without turning the student-athletes into something they are definitely not, which is employees," he said.

Baker followed by thanking the student-athlete leadership from all three divisions, including members of historically Black colleges and universities, for letting their voices be heard in saying they do not want to be forced into an employer-employee relationship. 

Across every demographic, student-athletes are graduating at a higher rate than their peers who are not student-athletes, Baker noted. The vast majority of college athletes will not play their sport professionally. They will use lessons gained from their college sports experience and education to launch them into young adulthood.

"College sports is uniquely American and uniquely amazing," Baker concluded. "Millions of adults believe, to their core, that the lessons they learned as student-athletes changed their lives. I hear the same message when I speak with today's student-athletes. They are why we are all here. Their future is too important for any of us to stand by and hope it's going to get better. And if we all do our part, get involved, do the work (and) play the hand, we can make progress on the large, complicated problems we face."

Because it's not going to fix itself.