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

Timothy Rapp @@TRappaRTFeatured Columnist IVApril 26, 2022

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - MARCH 31: NCAA President Dr. Mark Emmert speaks during a press conference before the 2022 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Final Four at Caesars Superdome on March 31, 2022 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

Tom Pennington/Getty Images

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:

Ross Dellenger @RossDellenger
Remember the NCAA is going through a transformation process to its governance structure.<br><br>Few expected Mark Emmert to preside over the *new* post-transformed NCAA, whatever it may be. For one, he's 69-years-old. For two, he's long ago lost the confidence of his members.

Rodger Sherman @rodger
like, it’s hard for me to imagine a “good” NCAA president, because I don’t think the NCAA should exist, but he was somehow simultaneously bad at his job from the NCAA’s perspective *and* my perspective. A hard line to hold

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Brian Floyd @BrianMFloyd
somehow in this day and age, mark emmert brought conservatives and liberals together and i guess he should be applauded for that though

Andrew Perloff @andrewperloff
Mark Emmert stepping down from NCAA feels a bit like the captain of the Titanic resigning after he hit the iceberg. What, too soon?

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.