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Maybe it’s the fact he’s the nation’s most popular governor as a Republican in one of the most liberal states. Maybe it’s his crisis leadership experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, his background as a private-sector CEO, or even his stated focus on solutions, not politics.
Maybe it was because he, too, was once a college athlete on the Harvard College men’s varsity basketball team, married another one, and is now a father to two former Division III college football players.
Or maybe the reasons the NCAA picked outgoing Gov. Charlie Baker to become its next president are, simply put, all of the above.
On March 1, Baker, 66, will succeed current NCAA president Mark Emmert, who is stepping down under a planned departure.
In announcing its next chief, NCAA officials seemingly drew on a variety of the many components of Baker’s resume, but especially his political background and his reputation as a bipartisan problem solver, as the organization continues to navigate legal challenges around student athlete compensation and other issues.
“Governor Baker has shown a remarkable ability to bridge divides and build bipartisan consensus, taking on complex challenges in innovative and effective ways,” Linda Livingstone, president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas and chair of the NCAA Board of Governors, who led the presidential search committee, said in a statement.
“As a former student-athlete himself, husband to a former college gymnast, and father to two former college football players, Governor Baker is deeply committed to our student-athletes and enhancing their collegiate experience,” Livingstone continued. “These skills and perspective will be invaluable as we work with policymakers to build a sustainable model for the future of college athletics.”
And that skillset appears to be valuable enough for the NCAA to part ways with its past tradition of hiring university presidents and athletic directors, thereby giving Baker an outsider status some say is needed for the association to meet this moment.
“It’s a great day for college athletics. It’s a great day for the NCAA,” Blake James, the athletic director of Boston College, told Boston.com on Thursday afternoon. “I commend the group that was identifying who our new leader was for finding someone who is outside the norm of who we are.
“We’re an association of institutions of higher education, so at a time when there are a number of challenges to bring someone in from the outside, who is a proven leader who understands the political landscape, I think was just a really a great move,” James added.The NCAA’s current challenges
Baker is stepping into a role that will put him at the center of a number of pressing legal and legislative problems for intercollegiate athletics.
