NCAA proposes uncapping compensation for athletes

LAS VEGAS – A plan by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for a series of reforms that includes uncapped compensation for athletes could help address the growing inequities of a system, in which sports such as American football and men’s basketball generate billions in TV and other revenue, yet the schools share a minuscule amount directly with the athletes.

In a sharp break from his organisation’s past, the NCAA president, Charlie Baker, on Dec 5 called for a series of changes paving the way for the top money-making schools to break away and form a division that would more closely resemble professional sports and have the potential to enrich students.

Baker’s proposal, in a letter directed at the 352 Division I member schools, also called for reform of so-called name, image and licence payments so that women athletes could reap greater benefits. He also wrote that the overhaul would help the NCAA seek shelter from antitrust lawsuits.

“It’s time for the @NCAA to provide a forward-looking framework that preserves the best aspects of the student-athlete experience, builds on positive investments in women’s sports, and improves the overall athletic and academic experience for students at well-resourced schools,” he added on social media platform X.

His plan, while far from an edict, serves as a directive for college presidents and athletic administrators who make up the NCAA governing boards that write rules and present them to the member schools for approval, a process that requires nearly a year to approve even the most picayune changes.

The National Labour Relations Board is hearing two cases in which athletes are asking to be classified as employees, and there are several cases winding their way through the courts that charge the NCAA with violating antitrust laws.

A bill in the California legislature would make revenue sharing with athletes compulsory.

Baker – the former governor of Massachusetts who became the president of college sports’ governing body in March – proposed that schools set aside educational trust funds of at least US$30,000 (S$40,200) per year for at least half of their athletes, but added that they would have to comply with Title IX laws, which dictate that there must be equal opportunities for men and women.

In his letter, he framed his proposal as a new starting point of a discussion that has befuddled leaders of an organisation with agendas that are as disparate as their budget lines.

“Now the hard work begins,” said Dan Radakovich, the athletic director at the University of Miami. NYTIMES