Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker to follow Mark Emmert as NCAA president
Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker was named as the NCAA’s next president, the organization announced Thursday.
The 66-year-old Baker, a Republican, has been governor of the state since 2015 and announced last year that he would not seek re-election for the office, clearing the way for him to take the job as his second term ends Jan. 5.
Baker will replace Mark Emmert on March 1, who spent 12 years on the job. Emmert will continue to serve the NCAA as a consultant through June 2023.
The NCAA has run into credibility problems in the last decade, specifically in relation to gender equity, getting a handle on the transfer portal in college athletics, and name, image and likeness, which has no federal legislation as the organization has let individual states and schools make their own rules of enforcement.
FREEP ON MSU: Michigan State football roster breakdown, where Mel Tucker may look for 2023 transfers
FREEP ON U-M:How a bizarre week further revealed mettle of a perfectly strange Michigan football team
TITLE IX:What happens if a school doesn’t comply with Title IX? Not a whole lot.
"I am honored to become the next president of the NCAA, an organization that impacts millions of families and countless communities across this country every day," said Baker. "The NCAA is confronting complex and significant challenges, but I am excited to get to work as the awesome opportunity college athletics provides to so many students is more than worth the challenge."
Baker, a Harvard graduate, has no experience in college administration or education, but the NCAA said he will be charged "with building on the NCAA's ongoing transformation efforts" as the new constitution ratified in January gave all three divisions the ability of self-governance.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker to be next NCAA president
