Rising up in a Boston suburb within the Sixties, Charlie Baker realized 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 gives classes for his job as president of the NCAA — the nation’s largest faculty sports activities governing physique overseeing some 500,000 athletes at greater than 1,100 colleges.
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 colleges. It was an try partially to grapple with one of many diciest points dealing with the NCAA — how greatest to compensate faculty athletes.
Baker stated his proposal would require colleges that wish to be part of the brand new tier to decide to paying athletes tens of 1000’s of {dollars} per 12 months by way of a belief fund. He additionally urged all Division I colleges carry title, picture and likeness compensation for his or her athletes in-house by way of group licensing and take away limits on academic advantages colleges can present their gamers
“Some persons are going to say you’re going too far and folks will say however you’re not going far sufficient,” 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 might 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, be taught and adapt.
“In each of these roles as governor and well being care CEO he was in very complicated environments and labored to unravel some fairly laborious, what appeared to be intractable, issues,” stated Livingstone, who was a part of the workforce 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 can 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 concepts collectively,” she stated.
Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick stated Baker appreciates the disaster faculty athletics is in and has introduced a brand new urgency to the position.
“There’s the query of how governable the NCAA is and I feel Charlie type of poses that query in actual time, as a result of he’s such an efficient chief and supervisor,” Swarbrick stated. “If he can’t engineer the change, I don’t assume anyone can.”
For Baker, navigating probably uneven political waters was a ability he honed as a Republican in Democratic Massachusetts, adapting to a typically frosty political atmosphere by making as many allies as doable and selecting his fights rigorously.
It was a lesson realized partially throughout his first run for governor in opposition to Democratic incumbent Deval Patrick in 2010. Through 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.
“4 years later he ran as somebody who was extra bipartisan, congenial and I feel that helped him,” O’Brien stated. “He confirmed he might be taught and alter 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 atmosphere. He’s used to working with individuals who aren’t precisely positive about him,” O’Brien stated. “As governor, he might go together with the Democratic leaders with some small modifications. With the NCAA, member colleges will not be going to be glad with the established order. He must be extra of a doer.”
Michael McCann, a regulation professor and director of the Sports activities and Leisure Legislation Institute on the College of New Hampshire, stated Baker looks like a superb match for an almost not possible job.
“He has the best background for what the NCAA must do, which is to reorient itself,” McCann stated. “He’s pragmatic, he’s actuality primarily based, he understands the significance 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 by way of the pandemic. He additionally drew the ire of former President Donald Trump by refusing to endorse or vote for him 2016 and 2020.
One problem that vexed Baker all through his tenure was the state of metropolitan Boston’s public transit system. Baker poured billions into changing tracks, fixing alerts and updating electrical techniques at the same time as 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 athletes at prime colleges are beginner athletes, at the same time as faculty sports activities rakes in billions yearly.
Baker might want to steer colleges towards a brand new mannequin, McCann stated.
“It’s a giant enterprise and he knew that. I don’t know if there’s a proper individual for the job as a result of it’s so difficult,” he stated. “The open-ended query is whether or not it’s too late for the NCAA.”
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AP Faculty Soccer Author Ralph D. Russo contributed.