NCAA Athletics: New NCAA President suggest NIL changes; Charles Barkley responds

This March, long-embattled NCAA President Mark Emmert was replaced by former Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker. Emmert will remain in an advisory role through part of the summer as Baker gets acclimated to governing NCAA Athletics instead of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Because of the severe changes seen in college athletics in recent years, college sports fans, coaches, and players are all eager to see what the beginning stages of Baker’s presidency will hold. The implementation of the transfer portal’s one-time free transfer and NIL’s almost lawless landscape has college athletics at a crossroads: will Baker and the NCAA put regulations and guidelines into place regarding NIL and the transfer portal before it’s too late, or will they allow the “Wild, Wild West” to continue operating as is?

On Thursday, CBS’s Greg Gumbel and Clark Kellogg sat down with Baker and asked him what some of his important first steps might be as NCAA President. Baker’s response started off strong but went off the rails quickly.

Baker made clear that he believes NIL needs regulations. He said regulations should be put into place that provide both “consumer protections” and more binding agreements to ensure players receive what they are promised. Baker suggested that contracts could be an avenue to helping both the players and those who are paying for these NIL deals because it would help eliminate the dishonesty that exists on both sides of the NIL discussion.

Up to this point, Baker had not said anything unreasonable. In fact, many college football and basketball fans have called for the same things. However, Baker said the NCAA would need some help in making this happen. Where would the help come from? According to Baker, federal and state politicians would be the ones to make things happen.

The sound of the collective free world groaning all at once must have been deafening in that moment. As if to speak for college sports fans everywhere, the ever-opinionated Charles Barkley had an appropriate response to Baker’s musings: “We need to find some people who actually care about [college sports]…put together a committee and work this thing out…we can’t ask our politicians nothin’…they’re all crooks.”

"“We can’t ask our politicians NOTHIN’!” – Charles Barkley"

Frankly, Barkley is right. The average American can’t trust politicians to lead the American government the right way. Why would anyone want them overseeing our sports, too?

The whole exchange can be found in the tweet below.