The first question that comes to mind with the NCAA hiring a new president: Why would anyone want this job?
Well, aside from the money, which answers pretty much any similar question regarding a major CEO position.
This is different. Leading the NCAA has traditionally been vocational, more like a calling than punching a timecard.
And early on, Charlie Baker has shown he is willing to take on the vocation. He’ll take less than two months off from being a two-term Massachusetts governor to leading an organization Mark Emmert did his best to run into the ground.
“I certainly think the challenges here are significant,” Baker said.
File that away as understatement of the year.
In hiring Baker, 66, at least the NCAA admitted what it has become: A diminished nonprofit monolith that has lost traction, power and respect.
It needs political influence to keep it from, well, folding. To the point Baker said he will lead, “to make sure we don’t lose this jewel going forward.”
He is the first leader of the association without a background in college athletics administration or higher education, which might be fine.
The NCAA’s new leader averaged 1.6 points playing basketball at Harvard. If you’ve been paying close attention, the NCAA is becoming less about college athletics and even less about higher education.
Baker must shake hands with players not only as “student-athletes” but soon-to-be equals in a giant economic enterprise. They (or their collective bargaining representatives) will hold that much power in the future.
“What he has is what most people don’t understand,” said Tom McMillen, CEO of LEAD1, the FBS AD organization, and a former Maryland Congressman. “When you say he’s political or has political acumen, that means he knows how to work with individuals. The biggest constituency he has is the 1,100 schools that heretofore have been pretty fragmented.
“He’s got to get those folks behind him. Once he has that, then he can go to legislators and talk a whole different game. You don’t get to be the most popular Republican governor in a Democratic state by not being able to do that.”
As NCAA president, Baker does have to accept that the transfer portal and NIL are pretty much the way of the world. Perhaps they’ll be altered slightly with Baker’s guidance. But any decision to call on Congress to fix things comes with … calling on Congress would to fix…
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