Rising up in a Boston suburb within the Nineteen Sixties, Charlie Baker discovered his first political lesson — the artwork of listening to competing viewpoints — across the dinner desk as his Democratic mom and Republican father hashed out the matters of the day.
There was a cause he was given two ears and one mouth, his mom would inform him.
It’s a narrative Baker repeatedly informed as Massachusetts governor, and one that provides classes for his job as president of the NCAA — the nation’s largest school sports activities governing physique overseeing some 500,000 athletes at greater than 1,100 faculties.
Earlier this month, the 6-foot-6 former Harvard basketball participant outlined a vision for a brand new NCAA subdivision on the very prime of faculty sports activities in a letter he despatched to the greater than 350 Division I faculties. It was an try partially to grapple with one of many diciest points dealing with the NCAA — how finest to compensate school athletes.
Baker stated his proposal would require faculties that need to be part of the brand new tier to decide to paying athletes tens of 1000’s of {dollars} per yr via a belief fund. He additionally recommended all Division I faculties carry identify, picture and likeness compensation for his or her athletes in-house via group licensing and take away limits on academic advantages faculties can present their gamers
“Some people are going to say you’re going too far and people will say but you’re not going far enough,” Baker stated.
It’s half of a bigger effort by the 67-year-old to assist persuade lawmakers in Washington that the NCAA is making an attempt to get forward of its legal troubles as they face antitrust challenges that would usher in a brand new actuality the place some athletes are handled like paid workers. Coming to phrases with that future is one cause the NCAA hired Baker.
Linda Livingstone, president of Baylor College and chair of NCAA board of governors, stated Baker’s historical past as governor and stint as a former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Well being Care demonstrated a capability to pay attention, study and adapt.
“In both of those roles as governor and health care CEO he was in very complex environments and worked to solve some pretty hard, what seemed to be intractable, problems,” stated Livingstone, who was a part of the crew that employed Baker. She stated the truth that Baker didn’t come from the worlds of academia or athletics was one other plus.
What the NCAA wants most from Baker is assist in discovering a mannequin that may carry extra stability to athletics. Livingstone stated that mannequin ought to present compensation for athletes however cease in need of designating them workers.
“We’re all working with Charlie as we develop these ideas together,” she stated.
Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick stated Baker appreciates the disaster school athletics is in and has introduced a brand new urgency to the function.
“There’s the question of how governable the NCAA is and I think Charlie sort of poses that question in real time, because he is such an effective leader and manager,” Swarbrick stated. “If he can’t engineer the change, I don’t think anybody can.”
For Baker, navigating doubtlessly uneven political waters was a ability he honed as a Republican in Democratic Massachusetts, adapting to a generally frosty political atmosphere by making as many allies as doable and selecting his fights rigorously.
It was a lesson discovered partially throughout his first run for governor towards Democratic incumbent Deval Patrick in 2010. Throughout the race, Baker got here off as too conservative and a sore loser, stated Erin O’Brien, an affiliate professor of political science on the College of Massachusetts-Boston.
“Four years later he ran as someone who was more bipartisan, congenial and I think that helped him,” O’Brien stated. “He showed he could learn and change course.”
Though Baker at occasions discovered himself at odds with some unions, he developed a public “bromance” with then-Democratic Mayor of Boston Marty Walsh, a former labor lawyer and present govt director of the Nationwide Hockey League Gamers’ Affiliation.
“He’s used to a semi-hostile environment. He’s used to working with people who aren’t exactly sure about him,” O’Brien stated. “As governor, he could go along with the Democratic leaders with some small changes. With the NCAA, member schools are not going to be satisfied with the status quo. He has to be more of a doer.”
Michael McCann, a regulation professor and director of the Sports activities and Leisure Regulation Institute on the College of New Hampshire, stated Baker looks as if a great match for a virtually inconceivable job.
“He has the right background for what the NCAA needs to do, which is to reorient itself,” McCann stated. “He’s pragmatic, he’s reality based, he understands the importance of deal making.”
Throughout his eight years as governor Baker confronted a slew of challenges, from battling blizzards, to making an attempt to repair a teetering public transit system, to main the state via the pandemic. He additionally drew the ire of former President Donald Trump by refusing to endorse or vote for him 2016 and 2020.
One difficulty that vexed Baker all through his tenure was the state of metropolitan Boston’s public transit system. Baker poured billions into changing tracks, fixing indicators and updating electrical methods whilst officers handled runaway trains, subway cars belching smoke and rush hour trains operating on weekend schedules.
At occasions the system appeared unfixable, not not like the NCAA. McCann stated the group has tried to cling to a mannequin that doesn’t resonate with the general public anymore — the concept that athletes at prime faculties are beginner athletes, whilst school sports activities rakes in billions yearly.
Baker might want to steer faculties towards a brand new mannequin, McCann stated.
“It’s a big undertaking and he knew that. I don’t know if there is a right person for the job because it is so challenging,” he stated. “The open-ended question is whether it’s too late for the NCAA.”
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AP School Soccer Author Ralph D. Russo contributed.
