NCAA President Charlie Baker said “there is a fair amount of dialogue and discussion going on in Washington” around college sports and “in some ways the conversation has been amped up” after President Trump on Friday issued an executive order on college athletics. Baker, appearing on the SiriusXM College Sports Radio channel on Monday, said members in Congress are “talking about a lot of the stuff that was in the executive order,” including “coming up with a policy around eligibility.” He added the NCAA “has to be able to enforce rules around things like eligibility.” Baker: “Having different voices sort of coalescing around a variety of issues that are particularly concerning, that’s a good thing.” Baker said the “biggest thing” in the first six months of the House settlement being implemented is schools having the “ability to talk to their student athletes about money.” He noted the “number of kids who entered the portal was down by 20%” during football’s fall window and that was “in large part because schools had the ability to talk directly to their student athletes about NIL programming and what they were willing to do on their behalf.” On the issue of tampering, Baker said they have “got to create a structure” in order to police it. He highlighted the ghost transfer policy, enacted by the D-I cabinet, which sees the “idea that if you don’t go in the portal and somehow you land at some other school, the school is going to be expected to pay consequences for that” (SiriusXM College Sports Radio, 4/6).
NCAA’s Baker talks Trump executive order, House settlement effects
