NCAA pitch: Let D-I schools pay athletes via NIL
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Dan Murphy, ESPN Staff Writer
NCAA president Charlie Baker proposed rule changes Tuesday that would allow Division I schools for the first time to pay their athletes in ways that are not tied to educational resources.
Baker shared the proposed changes in a letter sent to member schools. If Division I schools choose to adopt the rules, they would be allowed to enter into name, image and likeness deals directly with their athletes. The new rules would also create a new subdivision of Division I schools that would be allowed to create its own set of rules for recruiting, transfers, roster size and a wide range of other policies. To be a part of that subdivision, each school would have to put millions of dollars each year into a trust fund for athletes.
“[It] is time for us — the NCAA — to offer our own forward-looking framework,” Baker said. “This framework must sustain the best elements of the student-athlete experience for all student-athletes, build on the financial and organizational investments that have positively changed the trajectory of women’s sports, and enhance the athletic and academic experience for student-athletes who attend the highest resourced colleges and universities.”
The policy would bring a major change to the foundational tenet of the NCAA’s long-held business model that prevented schools from providing any non-academic-based compensation to athletes. Baker’s letter said the change is necessary during a time when the revenue generated by top colleges is poised to grow significantly and the legal pressure to compensate athletes continues to mount.
Baker, who is expected to speak in more detail about the proposal during a public appearance Wednesday in Las Vegas, has privately floated the idea to college sports leaders during the past several weeks. Some high-profile athletic directors, such as Ohio State’s Gene Smith, showed public support for the idea Tuesday.
“I am 100% supportive of your efforts,” Smith said Baker in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday. “Intercollegiate Athletics needs the proactive and forward thinking you are providing. Thank you for this letter!”
Schools in the new, highest-paying subdivision would be required to set aside a minimum of $30,000 per athlete for at least half of their athletes on an annual basis. That money is ostensibly to help athletes continue educational pursuits during the summer or after their careers, but there would be no requirements for how they spend it.
Schools could choose to provide more money to each athlete or provide money to more of their athletes. It would also be left up to individual schools to decide when they share that money with athletes. The NCAA doesn’t intend to require that an athlete finish his or her degree before they get access to that money.
Baker wrote that the new policy would help gender equity because the newly developed trust fund would also be required follow Title IX law by equally distributing money to men and women. Any NIL payments made from schools to their athletes would also be subject to Title IX rules.
The letter doesn’t define a line for which schools would fall in that top-earning subdivision but instead says the new framework would give schools the option to decide. The top schools, which according to the letter are more impacted “by collectives, the Transfer Portal and NIL,” would be allowed to create their own set of rules to help police those areas of the market for college athletes in unique ways.
Baker said in the letter that these new rules will help provide a model to show to Congress in the NCAA’s ongoing quest for new federal laws to help in governing college sports. Baker and other NCAA leaders have been asking Congress for three years to create a law that would allow them to keep college athletes from becoming employees, create uniform rules for NIL deals and avoid future antitrust lawsuits. Those efforts have so far failed to gain significant momentum, with several key lawmakers telling the institutions they need to make efforts to solve their own problems before the government intervenes.
Baker, who took over as the NCAA president in March, has said multiple times during his tenure that he believes the highest-earning echelon of college sports operates in a different reality than the overwhelming majority of NCAA schools.
“[This proposal] kick-starts a long-overdue conversation among the membership that focuses on the differences that exist between schools, conferences and divisions and how to create more permissive and flexible rules across the NCAA that put student-athletes first,” he said. “Colleges and universities need to be more flexible, and the NCAA needs to be more flexible, too.”
The letter did not provide a time frame for when these proposals would be fleshed out, but the process for changing major NCAA rules typically takes more than a year. NCAA schools would have to vote to adopt the changes. Those stakeholders next meet in January in Phoenix at their annual convention.
BOSTON — Rafael Devers had a career-high eight RBIs, hitting a three-run homer in the sixth inning and a grand slam in a 13-run eighth, to lead the Boston Red Sox over the Baltimore Orioles 19-5 on Friday in the opener of what was supposed to be a day-night doubleheader.
Boston trailed 2-1 entering the sixth, when Ceddanne Rafaela hit an RBI single off Seranthony Dominguez (2-1), Jarren Duran had an RBI single against Gregory Soto and Devers followed with his fifth homer in 10 career at-bats against Soto.
Devers had four hits and leads the major leagues with 47 RBIs. He hit his seventh career slam and his second in a six-day span, his 12th homer this season. The drive came off rookie infielder Emmanuel Rivera, who gave up eight runs and got three outs, leaving him with a 72.00 ERA. Devers hit an RBI single earlier in the inning against Cionel Pérez.
“Everybody is surprised about what he’s doing, but that’s who he is,” said Red Sox starter Brayan Bello, according to MLB.com. “Everybody was also surprised he got off to a slow start in the first five or six games, but we know the type of hitter that he is, the type of player that he is and the numbers he can put up.”
Boston scored its most runs since a 20-8 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Aug. 11, 2021, and finished with 20 hits.
Its 13 runs in the eighth inning are the franchise’s second most in an inning over the past 50 seasons (14 on June 27, 2003, against the Marlins). They were also the most runs by any team in the eighth inning or later since the New York Yankees on June 21, 2005, against the Tampa Bay Rays (also 13).
Baltimore has lost nine of 10 and and 15 of 18, dropping to 16-33. The Orioles are 1-5 since manager Brandon Hyde was fired and replaced on an interim basis by third-base coach Tony Mansolino.
Red Sox third baseman Alex Bregman left because of right quadriceps tightness after singling in the fifth inning.
Rob Refsnyder had four RBIs, including a three-run homer in the eighth off Pérez. Duran had three RBIs.
The Red Sox had eight players score multiple runs, one shy of tying the franchise record.
Garrett Whitlock (3-0) allowed one hit in two scoreless innings.
Game 2 of the scheduled doubleheader was postponed later Friday because of rain. The teams will play a split doubleheader Saturday (1:05 p.m., 6:35 p.m.).
Information from ESPN Research and The Associated Press was used in this report.
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