NCAA President Mark Emmert Announces He Will Step Down in June 2023

NCAA President Mark Emmert announced Tuesday that he would step down from his position in June 2023.

"Throughout my tenure I've emphasized the need to focus on the experience and priorities of student-athletes," he said in a statement. "I am extremely proud of the work of the Association over the last 12 years and especially pleased with the hard work and dedication of the national office staff here in Indianapolis."

If the NCAA appoints a new president before June 2023, Emmert will step down at that time.

"With the significant transitions underway within college sports, the timing of this decision provides the Association with consistent leadership during the coming months plus the opportunity to consider what will be the future role of the president," the NCAA's board of governors chair John J. DeGioia said in a statement. "It also allows for the selection and recruitment of the next president without disruption."

The news was not exactly met with sadness:

Emmert, 69, has served as the NCAA's president since 2010, presiding over the most transformational period in the history of college sports after athletes were finally granted the right to profit off their name, image and likeness rights.

Emmert led the NCAA's charge against NIL rights, though the institution repeatedly lost that fight in the courts.

In January, the NCAA's member schools wrote a new constitution to reflect the changing times. Per ESPN's Mark Schlabach, that new constitution "is designed to simplify what many college sports leaders have called a complex and outdated rulebook. It shrinks the board of governors—the association's decision-making entity—from 20 members down to nine and tries to ensure that current and former athletes have a larger voice in shaping the future NCAA."

The new constitution has held that college athletes should not be paid by their schools but has given its three divisions the freedom to make decisions about other benefits college athletes can receive.

And by June 2023 at the latest, a new NCAA president will be overseeing that transformation.