EDITORIAL: NCAAA needs Cinderella story with new president
Dec. 20—When he becomes president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association in March, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker might wish he had sought a third term. (Think "be careful what you wish for.")
The NCAA, a billion-dollar enterprise that technically administers college sports involving 500,000 athletes, faces a host of challenges.
Baker played basketball for Harvard in the 1970s but never has been involved in sports administration. Looking ahead, however, he has the advantage of not having a hard act to follow.
Retiring NCAA President Mark Emmert has a woeful record in enforcement matters.
Emmert personally mangled the NCAA's handling of the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal at Penn State, which did not involve anyone under the NCAA's jursidiction, and then was so cowed by the fallout that the NCAA did nothing about verified sexual abuse of student athletes at other universities.
The NCAA botched a pay-to-play investigation at the University of Miami and then invented an excuse not to sanction the University of North Carolina for an academic cheating scandal involving thousands of athletes.
North Carolina is a basketball powerhouse, thus a driver of the NCAA's primary revenue source. The NCAA owns the "March Madness" NCAA Division I basketball tournaments, from which it derives almost all of its revenue and from where those teams who come into the contest as underdogs and fare well get their "Cinderella story."
Baker will take over an organization that has been forced to recognize reality, in the form of "name, image and likeness" endorsements that enrich athletes and skew recruiting and competitive balance, the bustling "transfer portal," and the growing power of conferences, bowls and playoffs in football, outside the control of the NCAA.
Baker, a Republican in a Democratic state, has some of the highest public approval numbers for any high-level elected official.
The NCAA can use some of that magic to give it that sparkle and shine it so desperately needs.
