The legal challenges for the NCAA keep mounting. And experts say the overhaul proposed by NCAA President Charlie Baker — should it come to pass — probably won’t help much.
Baker’s proposal sent to more than 350 Division I schools would create a new Division I tier where schools would be required to pay at least half their athletes at least $30,000 annually. The proposal also would allow all Division I schools to offer unlimited educational benefits and enter into name, image and likeness licensing deals with athletes.
The call is just part of momentous changes already underway for the NCAA, its 500,000 athletes and its 1,100 member universities. With billions flowing to schools in a few power conferences through media rights deals, the push to direct some of the largesse to athletes has never been greater.
That push is clearly seen in a handful of high-profile lawsuits against the NCAA. Should the plaintiffs win, it could lead to a college sports landscape where some athletes are paid employees or at least get money in a revenue-sharing model that looks like professional sports.
Baker’s proposal won’t change that, experts say.
“These are changes that will happen prospectively. They wouldn’t end any of the ongoing lawsuits,” said Gabe Feldman, director of Tulane’s Sports Law program and the school’s associate provost for NCAA compliance. “They wouldn’t provide any protection for their exposure in those ongoing lawsuits. And in fact, they may strengthen the arguments that the plaintiffs have in those cases, that the rules that the NCAA has insisted on in the past were more restrictive than necessary.”