The NCAA has begun a state-of-business review taking a top-to-bottom analysis of the entire association, NCAA president Charlie Baker told CBS Sports. The association has hired Boston-based Bain & Company, a top-10 global management consulting firm, to handle the review.
This evaluation comes at a time when the NCAA’s future role in college athletics is itself under review. The NCAA has failed to get its arms around NIL and continues to fight lawsuits on several fronts. What will the NCAA even be if courts determine athletes are employees?
Big East commissioner Val Ackerman believes the NCAA as a whole is sometimes inefficient and undervalued. Failure to capitalize on that value has led to some of the association’s current problems.
“There isn’t a clearly defined commercial unit within the national office. In my opinion, it’s failing,” Ackerman said during an extended conversation with CBS Sports. “The NCAA is a billion-dollar concern because of the money they bring in from March Madness. I think we would all benefit from a clearly defined structure, business unit that would be run by a chief marketing officer and a chief commercial officer who would be entrusted with oversight over television with a dedicated broadcast person underneath them.”
Ackerman’s credentials make her a leading influencer in whatever the NCAA — and college sports at large — becomes in the age of NIL, player empowerment and legal threats. The 63-year-old former Virginia basketball captain and first WNBA president is in her 10th year as Big East commissioner. Her league just came off its fourth men’s basketball national championship since 2014.
She is hardly alone among the membership in questioning the term and value of the ongoing men’s basketball television contract that ends in 2032. The value of sponsorships is in question as well. All of it provides the foundation of the NCAA’s $1 billion budget, approximately 90% of which comes from men’s basketball tournament revenue.
One Power Five administrator perked up when informed of Ackerman’s comments.
“There are so many different things [the NCAA] should be thinking about revenue wise,” said that administrator, who did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject. “I could tell you 10 things they should be doing. They should sell the naming rights to ‘March Madness.’ What do you think that would be worth? It’s enormous what…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CBSSports.com Headlines…