NCAA President Charlie Baker yesterday at the Globe Summit in Boston "discussed his role at a pivotal time in collegiate athletics, with conference realignment, the transfer portal, and NIL rules radically shifting the landscape,” according to Amin Touri of the BOSTON GLOBE. Between exec leadership at a macro level and “balancing dozens of conferences, hundreds of committees, and more than a thousand member schools,” Baker’s “new gig does bear some similarities to his old one.” Baker said being in an environment like that “is familiar.” He added, “More than anything, it should be that I’ll find ways to create what I’d describe as common ground, and get us to the place where we make decisions before things happen as opposed to reacting and responding when something happens.” Touri noted Baker “made clear” the organization’s understanding “of its place in the social media age, when young people can build a brand and an influence online.” He takes “no issue with that;” the concern is how NIL rules “have been implemented.” Baker said the concern he has about the way it works now “is that there’s no framework and no transparency and no accountability.” He added, “I mean, it’s virtually impossible for a student-athlete or their family to know if what someone is telling them is true or not -- an agent, a rep -- and that bothers me" (BOSTON GLOBE, 9/20).
