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Dan Murphy, ESPN Staff Writer
INDIANAPOLIS — NCAA President Charlie Baker said he is not in favor of rules or federal legislation that would place new restrictions on how college athletes can transfer between schools.
In a wide-ranging, hour-long interview with ESPN on Tuesday, Baker talked about maintaining a stable roster in the new college sports environment, where there are fewer restrictions on player transfers and more ability to transfer players. There was no sympathy for the many coaches who publicly complained about the difficulty of the game. Name, image and likeness deals have been proven to motivate players to consider changing teams.
“I've talked to a lot of coaches who didn't break their contracts,” Baker said. “One of the things I hear a lot when I talk to kids about this issue is, 'Coaches are breaking their contracts. What happens to us?'
Baker said he believes the transfer rate in college sports reflects a larger trend in which all college students are transferring more frequently than ever before.
“Are they transferring more than they were 10 years ago? Yes. Are they transferring more than their non-student-athlete peers? No,” Baker said. “…They actually transfer less than students who aren't student-athletes, and they just transfer more because kids have more information and data and are more impatient about a lot of things. .”
Many leaders in college sports, including Baker, who is nearing the end of his first full year as NCAA president, are weighing in on the future of college sports amid myriad legal challenges to NCAA rules. petitioned Congress for help in regaining control of the Some of the bills and proposals created by Congress include provisions that would make it more difficult for athletes to transfer.
Asked about the possibility of legislation restricting players' movement and therefore some of their economic power, Baker said: “I don't really think about that. Not really.”
None of these bills have reached committee votes, the first step toward becoming law. Baker said he remains optimistic that Congress will provide some assistance to the NCAA. One reason for this, he said, is that when he visits the Capitol, he regularly speaks with actual members of Congress rather than staffers.
Baker said he would continue to pursue legislation into the future even if Congress fails to pass NCAA legislation before the November election. There are multiple legal challenges that pose serious threats to the way the NCAA currently operates, and could be concluded within the next 12 months. Baker said that even if some of the antitrust lawsuits and efforts to turn college athletes into employees are successful, the NCAA will continue to ask Congress for help.
“If we don’t achieve that this year, [we’ll] “There will certainly be more examples of why it's important to take up preemption, compensation, employment and other issues in the next Congress,” he said.
Baker added that “there is really no path forward” for the NCAA to resolve its current legal issues in a sustainable manner without the intervention of federal lawmakers.
Among other topics discussed with ESPN at association headquarters, Baker said he believes there is an opportunity to expand the NCAA men's basketball tournament if done carefully. Leaders of some of college sports' biggest and most powerful conferences told ESPN and others last week that they want to push for changes to give more teams access to March Madness.
Baker said he does not support the idea of reducing the opportunities for small league schools to participate in the tournament by eliminating the automatic bid that each league gets for teams that win conference championships.
“Most people who follow college sports think the NCAA Tournament for basketball is perfect, right? So if you do anything to change that, you have to do it with great care. ” he said.
Baker said the NCAA basketball committee has been discussing these ideas since last summer, and the association could get some updates on these potential changes between now and when this year's tournament ends in early April. He said that there is a sex.
