NCAA Prez Charlie Baker Uses Sports Business Journal Forum In Las Vegas To Elaborate On His Major Proposal To Pay $30,000 To Some D1 College Athletes

By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer

Sports Business Journal Publisher Abe Madkour’s timing could not have been better.

At SBJ’s Intercollegiate Athletics Forum Wednesday, Madkour interviewed NCAA President Charlie Baker before a crowd of sportsbiz movers and shakers only a day after Baker made a big news splash with his plan to give Division 1 universities in a new proposed tier the option to pay some athletes at least $30,000 a year in a trust fund.

These universities would be a “subdivision” of schools that have the highest resources to invest in their student-athletes.

Baker, the former Massachusetts governor who started his NCAA job in March, said in a letter to Division 1 schools that “we need to make several fundamental changes.”

Here are some key points outlined in Baker’s letter that was posted by the AP on X:

Madkour did a nice job asking Baker about a variety of topics.

Baker mentioned he wants the NCAA to create what he called the biggest data base on college sports fans in the world.

And if there was a theme to Baker’s comments, it was his concern about the disparity of sports resources between the top layer of powerful Division 1 universities and other Division 1 schools, and even Division II and III institutions.