"NCAA's Push for Pay: Creating a New Division I Tier for Athlete Compensation"

NCAA President Charlie Baker is proposing the creation of a new tier of Division I sports that would allow highly resourced schools to pay athletes. Under this proposal, schools would be required to offer at least half their athletes a payment of at least $30,000 per year through a trust fund. Baker also suggested allowing all Division I schools to offer unlimited educational benefits and enter into name, image, and likeness licensing deals with athletes. The goal is to address the disparity in resources between the wealthiest schools and the rest of Division I, while also navigating the challenges posed by name, image, and likeness opportunities and the Transfer Portal. The proposal would not require all members of a conference to be part of the new subdivision, and schools would be allowed to make that determination individually.