NCAA President Charlie Baker Says NIL, Player Payment Proposal Just a Starting Point

NCAA president Charlie Baker said Wednesday that his proposal to allow some of the most prominent Division I schools to pay their athletes directly through name, image and likeness deals is only just the beginning of what he aims to accomplish as he looks to make the governing body of college sports more proactive.

"We need to be able to anticipate where conversations are going and to try to get this big, huge, diverse [committee] with 2,000 members—like, oh my God!—to a place where they're talking about stuff that's common and not just responding and reacting to other people's agendas," Baker said, per ESPN.

Baker outlined a proposal, which was sent to more than 350 Division I schools this week, that would change the landscape of college sports for the foreseeable future.

Baker's vision includes creating a new NCAA subdivision that would require schools who want to be a part of it to pay their athletes "tens of thousands of dollars per year on top of their athletic scholarships," according to ESPN.

The new subdivision would allow the schools that have more money to spend on their athletes the power to do so. Budgets vary between all Division I schools and some of those schools have the money to spend on their athletes.

"Some people are going to say you're going too far and people will say but you're not going far enough," Baker said. "I promise you that's going to be where most of the dialogue on this will be in the short term."

Baker also suggested that Division I schools set up group licensing deals for athletes through NIL. Additionally, he called for any limits on educational benefits schools can provide for their athletes be removed.

Baker's proposal appears to be targeted toward the schools that are among Division I's highest tier, such as schools in the Power 5 conferences.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, who saw Baker's proposal on Tuesday, noted that reforming college sports in the world of NIL will have to be addressed by the NCAA, individual conferences, state legislatures, courts and Congress.

"All of those have to be part of the solution," Sankey said.