NCAA boss against additional transfer limitations
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Dan Murphy, ESPN Staff Writer
INDIANAPOLIS — NCAA president Charlie Baker said he is not in favor of rules or federal laws that would place new limits on the way college athletes transfer between schools.
During a wide-ranging, hourlong interview with ESPN on Tuesday, Baker harbored no sympathy for the many coaches who have publicly complained about the difficulties they have in maintaining stable rosters in the new college sports environment that carries fewer restrictions on player transfers and allows for name, image and likeness deals that have proved to be incentives for players to consider changing teams.
“I’ve had conversations with a bunch of coaches who didn’t … walk out on their contracts,” Baker said. “One of the things I hear from kids when I talk to them about this issue is, ‘Coaches walk out on their contracts. What about us?'”
Baker said he thinks the rate of transfers in college sports reflects a larger trend of all college students changing schools more frequently than in the past.
“Do they transfer more than they did ten years ago? Yes. Do they transfer more than their peers who aren’t student-athletes? No,” Baker said. “… They actually transfer less than students who aren’t student-athletes do, and kids just transfer more because they have more information, more data, and they’re more impatient about a lot of things.”
Baker, who is approaching the end of his first full year as the NCAA’s president, and many other leaders in college sports have petitioned Congress for help in regaining some control over the future of college sports amid myriad legal challenges to the NCAA’s rules. Several of the bills and proposals generated by Congress include provisions that would make it more difficult for athletes to transfer.
“I’m not much on that. I’m not,” Baker said when asked about the potential of a law that would restrict player movement and thus limit some of their economic power.
None of those bills have reached a committee vote — the first step toward becoming a law. Baker said he remains optimistic about the potential for Congress to provide some help to the NCAA, in part because, when he visits Capitol Hill, he’s having regular conversations with actual lawmakers rather than their staff members.
Baker said that even if Congress doesn’t pass an NCAA law before the coming election in November, he will continue pursuing a law into the future. There are multiple legal challenges that pose major threats to the way the NCAA currently operates that could conclude in the next 12 months. Baker said that even if some of those antitrust cases or efforts to turn college athletes into employees succeed, the NCAA will continue pressing Congress for help.
“If we don’t get it done this year, [we’ll] certainly have more examples about why it would be important to take on preemption and compensation and employment and some of these other issues in the next Congress,” he said.
Baker added there “really isn’t a path forward” for the NCAA to solve its current legal issues in a sustainable way without some intervention from federal lawmakers.
Among other topics discussed with ESPN at the association’s headquarters, Baker said he thinks there is an opportunity to expand the NCAA men’s basketball tournament — if it’s done with care. Leaders of some of college sports’ biggest and most powerful conferences have told ESPN and other outlets in the past week that they would like to press for changes that would allow for more of their teams to have access to March Madness.
Baker said he does not support the idea of decreasing opportunities for schools from smaller leagues to make the tournament by eliminating any of the automatic bids those leagues get for the teams that win their conference championships.
“Most of the people who follow college sports think the NCAA tournament in basketball is perfect, right? So anything that’s done to change it needs to be done with care and consideration,” he said.
Baker said the NCAA’s basketball committee has been discussing those ideas since last summer, and that the association might have some update on those potential changes between now and the end of this year’s tournament in early April.
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Adam Rittenberg
BOULDER, Colo. — Colorado coach Deion Sanders said he feels “healthy and vibrant” after returning to the field for preseason practices after undergoing surgery to remove his bladder after a cancerous tumor was found.
Sanders, 57, said he has been walking at least a mile around campus following Colorado’s practices, which began last week. He was away from the team for the late spring and early summer following the surgery in May. Dr. Janet Kukreja, director of urological oncology at University of Colorado Cancer Center, said July 30 that Sanders, who lost about 25 pounds during his recovery, is “cured of cancer.”
“I’m healthy, I’m vibrant, I’m my old self,” Sanders said. “I’m loving life right now. I’m trying my best to live to the fullest, considering what transpired.”
Sanders credited Colorado’s assistant coaches and support staff for overseeing the program during his absence. The Pro Football Hall of Famer enters his third season as Buffaloes coach this fall.
“They’ve given me tremendous comfort,” Sanders said. “I never had to call 100 times and check on the house, because I felt like the house is going to be OK. That’s why you try your best to hire correct, so you don’t have to check on the house night and day. They did a good job, especially strength and conditioning.”
Colorado improved from four to nine wins in Sanders’ second season, but the team loses Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, the No. 2 pick in April’s NFL draft, as well as record-setting quarterback Shedeur Sanders, the son of Deion Sanders. The Buffaloes have an influx of new players, including quarterbacks Kaidon Salter and Julian “Ju Ju” Lewis, who are competing for the starting job, as well as new staff members such as Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk, who is coaching the Buffaloes’ running backs.
Despite the changes and his own health challenges, Deion Sanders expects Colorado to continue ascending. The Buffaloes open the season Aug. 29 when they host Georgia Tech.
“The next phase is we’re going to win differently, but we’re going to win,” Sanders said. “I don’t know if it’s going to be the Hail Mary’s at the end of the game, but it’s going to be hell during the game, because we want to be physical and we want to run the heck out of the football.”
Sanders said it will feel “a little weird, a little strange” to not be coaching Shedeur when the quarterback starts his first NFL preseason game for the Cleveland Browns on Friday night at Carolina. Deion Sanders said he and Shedeur had spoken several times Friday morning. Despite being projected as a top quarterback in the draft, Shedeur Sanders fell to the fifth round.
“A lot of people are approaching it like a preseason game, he’s approaching like a game, and that’s how he’s always approached everything, to prepare and approach it like this is it,” Deion Sanders said. “He’s thankful and appreciative of the opportunity. He don’t get covered in, you know, all the rhetoric in the media.
“Some of the stuff is just ignorant. Some of it is really adolescent, he far surpasses that, and I can’t wait to see him play.”
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Adam Rittenberg
LSU starting quarterback Garrett Nussmeier aggravated the patellar tendinitis he has been dealing with in his knee but will not miss any significant time, coach Brian Kelly said Friday.
Kelly dropped in ahead of a news conference Friday with offensive coordinator Joe Sloan to tell reporters that Nussmeier did not suffer a severe knee injury or even a new one. According to Kelly, Nussmeier has chronic tendinitis in his knee and “probably just planted the wrong way” during Wednesday’s practice.
Nussmeier ranked fifth nationally in passing yards (4,052) last season, his first as LSU’s starter, and projects as an NFL first-round draft pick in 2026.
“It’s not torn, there’s no fraying, there’s none of that,” Kelly said. “This is preexisting. … There’s nothing to really see on film with it, but it pissed it off. He aggravated it a little bit, but he’s good to go.”
Kelly said Nussmeier’s injury ranks 1.5 out of 10 in terms of severity. Asked whether it’s the right or left knee, Kelly said he didn’t know, adding, “It’s not a serious injury. Guys are dealing with tendinitis virtually every day in life.”
LSU opens the season Aug. 30 at Clemson.
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