SBJ College: Baker touts NCAA revenue growth of around $300 million

Good evening from Washington, D.C., where I’m posted up the next few days for the NCAA Convention before heading down to Miami for the College Football Playoff championship between Miami and Indiana.

In a fun twist, I was in Miami over the weekend for my dear college friend Nick’s wedding. A huge shoutout to Nick and his new wife, Claudia. Here’s to hoping they survive their first two weeks of marriage — Nick, like me, is an Indiana grad, while Claudia went to Miami.

Godspeed!

For someone dealing with the number of existential crises his organization faces, NCAA President Charlie Baker is surprisingly chipper.

Baker, the former governor of Massachusetts, has overseen one of the most transformative and turbulent times in college sports history during his almost three years in charge of the association. And while threats remain, there’s been real progress, by his estimation.

“I do believe that some of the things that are messy actually create clarity,” Baker said in reference to the newly established College Sports Commission and its ongoing enforcement around NIL deals. “Which is a good thing.”

Baker spent nearly an hour on Tuesday afternoon visiting with a handful of reporters. Among the notes from the discussion:

• The NCAA received 1,450 waiver requests for extended eligibility between August 2024 and August 2025. It spiked about 450 of those requests. Of those, 49 ended up in court (the NCAA has won more than half of those cases in which a judge issued a preliminary ruling).
• The NCAA has grown revenues by around $300 million since he took over through a combination of the NCAA’s television deals with ESPN, CBS and TNT, along with new-look efforts to ticketing championship events.
• Baker said the entrants into the NCAA transfer portal in FBS and FCS football has shrunk by around 23% — attributing this to schools being able to negotiate deals with their athletes directly.
• The Division I Cabinet is expected to adopt legislation that would allow commercial jersey patches on uniforms this week, Baker said. Exact number and the size of the patches will be handled by the sport-specific playing rules committees, should that vote be held this week.
• Expansion of the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments remains an ongoing conversation. Baker noted the NCAA likely needs to make a determination on whether to expand beyond the 68-team fields by the time March Madness begins this year.
• A business nugget related to basketball expansion: Baker said if the tournament were to expand, it’s likely a number of new sponsorship categories would open up as part of that decision (he declined to name which ones might be affected, but he did clearly say gambling would not be one of them).

The NCAA Convention began in earnest on Tuesday as delegates descended on Washington, D.C., (well, technically Maryland) for the association’s annual gathering.

Don’t expect this week to be heavy on legislative items, but there are a few storylines I’m keeping tabs on as business gets done over cocktails and coffee at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center:

1) Jersey patches

In case you missed my story in this week’s magazine, the expectation is the Division I Cabinet will take up jersey patches again this week (NCAA President Charlie Baker said on Tuesday that he’s anticipating a vote).

The biggest hang up is the size and number of patches. Sources across the industry have told Sports Business Journal the expectation is schools will be able to sell corporate patches in time for the 2026 season.

The football and basketball oversight committees have been working logistics for months, and a vote is possible this week.

2) College Football Playoff expansion talk

Only a handful of FBS commissioners are expected in the DMV this week with another meeting slated in Miami over the weekend, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be plenty of discussion about the college football postseason.

Ultimately, responsibility lies with two people: Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. Until they agree on whether to expand to 16, 24 or whatever iteration of the CFP they’ve imagined, this is at a standstill.

There’s some optimism they could find a middle ground in time for their self-imposed Jan. 23 deadline to change things for the 2026 season. That said, don’t be surprised if this conversation drags into the offseason — again.

Something pseudo-related worth keeping an eye on: the Group of Six Commissioners met Tuesday at the NCAA Convention. The discussion was expected to center on creating more alignment among those leagues and potentially talking through ways to build value in the postseason.

3) Eligibility and what happens next

Eligibility has been a top line item in college sports conversations for years. It may not be the most prominent talking point at the convention this week, but there is something to be sorted out of how the NCAA, schools, etc. get a handle on player movement and eligibility more broadly.

There’s been ample talk about a “five for five” adjustment that would essentially allow athletes five years of eligibility in five years. Division II is slated to vote on that measure this week, though the conversation around it at the Division I level is essentially on pause.

Among the most prominent inherent issues will be the dozens of athletes challenging NCAA rules by taking their eligibility cases to favorable state courts. Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss is just the latest example.

Expect some discussion of eligibility issues this week, even if action isn’t taken across Division I.

In case you haven’t been perusing the secondary market for College Football Playoff title game tickets, like just about every Indiana grad I know, allow me to add some context.

The secondary market for tickets for next week’s Indiana-Miami game are, in layman’s terms, wild. According to data compiled by technology company Victory Live, this year’s national championship is the most expensive in the CFP era at $3,964.44 per ticket before fees.

It’s also worth noting that number has shot up since Jan 9. — the date of the Peach Bowl, the final CFP semifinal game. Tickets purchased prior to Jan. 9 were running at $3,523, while they’ve leaped to $4,181 in the days since.

Here’s a fuller look at CFP title game ticket prices over the years one week out from the contest:

There are, of course, matchup factors that play into this. Miami will be playing a home game — at least in terms of location — as the Canes look to lock up their first national championship since 2001.

Indiana, too, has shown a propensity for ticket buying throughout its historic CFP run. The Hoosiers overran the Rose Bowl and took over the Peach Bowl in recent weeks. An alumni base of 800,000 football-crazed fans will have that effect.

So, for those of you contemplating a mortgage payment or buying a new car, you can also spend that cash on attending next week’s championship game.

See you in Miami.

The NIL hirings weren’t the headline.

No, during a meeting of Wisconsin’s Board of Trustees on Nov. 25, the news-making decision was that the school had agreed to a 10-year, $104.5 million deal with Under Armour. But buried in those conversations was a mention that the school was also renegotiating its Learfield deal.

Now we know why.

Wisconsin announced on Dec. 17 it would add five NIL-centric positions to its Learfield staff as part of the creation of Badger Athlete Partners — a new vertical under its local multimedia rights outfit designed to help drive more NIL opportunities for athletes.

I caught up with Wisconsin AD Chris McIntosh to discuss the new approach and how it played into the school’s efforts to better fund football coach Luke Fickell while competing in a new ecosystem.

Answers have been edited for clarity and length.

SBJ: Considering your broader Learfield deal runs through 2029, how would you characterize this expansion, and why is it important?

Chris McIntosh: “It’s an expansion on a long partnership that we’ve had with Learfield. It’s also an expansion in our thinking on how we can activate NIL opportunities for our student athletes and provide more opportunity. In a sense, we’re in the opportunity creation business — the capability to participate on a broad-based scale for 23 sports, the opportunity to obtain a world-class education at Wisconsin, the opportunity to create, compete on the biggest stages and then an opportunity to capture NIL opportunities for our student athletes that’s on par with anyone and compete in that realm as well.

“For that, I’m really excited about Badger Athlete Partners. I’m grateful for our partnership with Learfield, who at every step along the way has been willing to assist and adapt and iterate. ... It positions us consistently with what we’ve been talking about, which is increasing the investment in our NIL efforts and in our programs and specifically in football but not limited to football.”

SBJ: In keeping Luke Fickell as coach, you all made mention of wanting to invest more heavily in the football program. How does this tie in with those sentiments?

CM: “The ecosystem or the environment within which college athletics has been operating has been dynamic. And as we have received more clarity on areas in which we can compete and invest in, that’s what we’ve chosen to do in this case. It’s important to us that we comply with [College Sports Commission] and the NCAA. That’s not changed. That’s always been a part of our ethos, if you will.

“But there’s an opportunity for us to create, to invest and create at scale infrastructure and opportunity for kids to benefit from NIL opportunities in a way that is pretty groundbreaking for us and for the industry. For that, we’re excited.”

SBJ: How do you envision the five positions you’re adding?

CM: “They would create opportunities to connect our student athletes with our existing partners and find new partners to create deals centered around storytelling, content creation. For that, we need more people to help us do that at the scale with which we intend to do that.”

SBJ: Given the new constraints of college sports and financial pressures, what do you see as the role of a multimedia rights partner?

CM: “This is the natural next step. Learfield, and certainly under [CEO Cole Gahagan’s] leadership, they’ve not been afraid or hesitant to evolve their business. If you think about what Learfield had been historically, where they have come from radio fixed signage, that’s a fraction of today’s current business and a fraction of the partnership that we have with them.

“They’ve been responsive to what our partners and our customers’ needs are. And a lot of that has centered around content creation in all kinds of forms. This is where Badger Athlete Partners and obviously with the opportunity to involve our student athletes, I think our sponsor partners, we all believe that there’s a tremendous opportunity to grow the business in a way that benefits all parties involved.”

• The Big 12 signed a multiyear deal with Busey Bank. The company will serve as the “official bank” of the conference and marks the first “official banking partner” in league history.
• UCLA athletics received a $17.3 million gift from the late Larry Layne, directly benefiting football and men’s basketball ($9.6 million will go toward football, and $7.7 million to men’s basketball). The donation is part of a $40-plus million pledge that will be spread across the university.
• In this week’s SBJ Media newsletter, Austin Karp reports that the thrilling Miami-Ole Miss CFP game was just one of two semifinals to draw under 16 million viewers.
• In this SBJ video, American Football Coaches Association Executive Director Craig Bohl discusses the sweeping changes he’s pushing for in college NIL rules.
• Houston picked CLC to assist in marketing and managing the athletic program’s licensing program (SBJ).
• The Big East and Playfly Sports are bringing back the Big East Road Trip presented by AlumniFi. It has 15 stops at Big East men’s and women’s games this season, bringing interactive experiences and other activities before the matchups. It tips off Saturday for the men’s matchup of St. John’s-Creighton and Sunday for UConn-Creighton for a women’s game (SBJ).