NCAA president on Trump’s commission plan: ‘Up for anything’

Field Level Media|published: Mon 12th May, 20:51 2025

President of the NCAA, Charlie Baker speaks during a press conference celebrating the 25 year anniversary of the NCAA moving its national office to Indianapolis on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, at the NCAA Headquarters in Indianapolis.

NCAA president Charlie Baker told reporters Monday that the Trump administration's interest in issues affecting college sports could help make progress.

President Donald Trump is planning a presidential commission on college athletics, according to reports that surfaced last week, with former Alabama coach Nick Saban in a lead role.

Yahoo Sports reported that the commission's goal would be to seek solutions for the present landscape -- in which unlimited transfers, unregulated compensation from boosters under the guise of NIL deals and continued conference realignment have had a profound impact on college football, basketball and other sports.

Baker has been president of the NCAA since 2023, when he succeeded Mark Emmert. He was the Republican governor of Massachusetts from 2015-23.

Baker was attending Atlantic Coast Conference meetings in Florida when he had an informal meeting with reporters there.

"I think the fact that there's an interest on the executive side on this, I think it speaks to the fact that everybody is paying a lot of attention right now to what's going on in college sports," Baker said.

"I'm up for anything that can help us get somewhere."

Baker added that representatives of his office have "talked to folks who are working on this," though he did not believe there was a framework ready yet.

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, meanwhile, said in an ACC Network interview that he believes Congress can help the college sports ecosystem.

"We have been very bold in the desire for a national standard when it comes to name, image and likeness. We need to make sure that we have something that comes out of Washington that connects all 50 of the states because we've had a piecemeal project and it's really undermined college sports. It's been a race to the bottom," Phillips said.

But it remains to be seen whether Trump will work with members of Congress or bypass them. Sen. Tommy Tuberville -- the former Auburn football coach -- hinted that Trump was considering using an executive order, which he did for a similar presidential commission on religious liberty.

--Field Level Media