愛污传媒

Sports

    • NCAA President Charlie Baker calls for new tier of Division I where schools can pay athletes

    Incoming NCAA president Charlie Baker speaks during the NCAA Convention, Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023, in San Antonio. Baker wants to create a new tier of Division I where athlete can be paid by schools. The new subdivision for schools with the most athletic resources could offer unlimited educational benefits, enter into name, image and likeness partnerships with athletes and compensate them through a trust fund (AP Photo/Darren Abate, File) Incoming NCAA president Charlie Baker speaks during the NCAA Convention, Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023, in San Antonio. Baker wants to create a new tier of Division I where athlete can be paid by schools. The new subdivision for schools with the most athletic resources could offer unlimited educational benefits, enter into name, image and likeness partnerships with athletes and compensate them through a trust fund (AP Photo/Darren Abate, File)
    Share
    LAS VEGAS -

    NCAA President Charlie Baker is asking members to make one of the most dramatic shifts in the history of college sports by allowing highly resourced schools to pay some of their athletes.

    In a letter sent to more than 350 Division I schools Tuesday, Baker said he wants the association to create a new tier of NCAA Division I sports where schools would be required to offer at least half their athletes a payment of at least US$30,000 per year through a trust fund.

    Baker also proposed allowing all Division I schools to offer unlimited educational benefits and enter into name, image and likeness licensing deals with athletes.

    He said the disparity in resources between the wealthiest schools in the top tier of Division I called the Football Bowl Subdivision and other D-I members -- along with the hundreds of Division II and III schools -- is creating "a new series of challenges."

    "The challenges are competitive as well as financial and are complicated further by the intersection of name, image and likeness opportunities for student-athletes and the arrival of the Transfer Portal," wrote Baker, the former Massachusetts governor who took over at the NCAA in March.

    Baker is scheduled to speak Wednesday at the Sports Business Journal's Intercollegiate Athletic Forum in Las Vegas.

    Division I is currently divided for football into the FBS, which has 133 schools, and FCS (Football Championship Subdivision).

    Baker's proposal is aimed at creating a new subdivision, covering all sports, where the richest athletic departments in the so-called Power Five conferences -- the Big Ten, Southeastern Conference, Big 12, Atlantic Coast Conference and Pac-12 -- can operate differently than the rest, while still competing with the rest of Division I.

    Conference realignment starting in 2024 will move the Pac-12 out of that group.

    The proposed shift would not require all members of a conference to be part of the new subdivision. Schools would be allowed to make that determination individually.

    Baker noted athletic budgets in Division I range from US$5 million and US$250 million annually, with 59 schools spending over US$100 million annually and another 32 spending over US$50 million. He said 259 Division I schools, however, spend less than US$50 million on their athletic programs.

    Baker said the difference in the way schools that participate in revenue-generating college sports such as major college football and basketball operate and the vast majority of college sports is complicating attempts to modernize the entire enterprise.

    "The contextual environment is equally challenging, as the courts and other public entities continue to debate reform measures that in many cases would seriously damage parts or all of college athletics," he wrote.

    Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said a during the Sports Business Journal's Intercollegiate Sports Forum that subdivision can be a trigger word in the NCAA, stoking worries some schools will be shut out of championship events or lose out on revenue. Nevarez didn't read Baker's proposal that way.

    "When I read it ... it talked about space to make governance," she said.

    Baker and college sports leaders have been pleading with Congress to help the NCAA with a federal law to regulate the way athletes can be paid for NIL deals.

    "I am 100% supportive of your efforts. Intercollegiate Athletics needs the proactive and forward thinking you are providing," Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said in a post on social media platform X.

    Smith oversees one of the largest athletic departments in the country with operating expenses of above US$225 million annually.

    Former Southern California and NFL star Reggie Bush called schools paying athletes, "Long overdue."

    Bush, who was being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday night in Las Vegas, was the focus of an NCAA impermissible benefits infractions case during his USC career that resulted in the vacation of a national title for the Trojans and Bush's 2005 Heisman Trophy victory.

    Baker's letter is an aggressive first step toward a major shift for the NCAA. To turn his vision into detailed legislation will take member feedback, lots of work by the Division I Council and final approval from the Division I Board of Directors.

    There is no timetable to bring the proposal to fruition.

    The NCAA is also facing a new round of legal threats that could force its members to share some of the billions in revenue generated by major college football and basketball, along with giving athletes employees status. One antitrust case working its way through federal court could cost the NCAA billions in damages.

    Baker called on NCAA member schools to create a new framework to make what he called "fundamental changes."

    "First, we should make it possible for all Division I colleges and universities to offer student-athletes any level of enhanced educational benefits they deem appropriate. Second, rules should change for any Division I school, at their choice, to enter into name, image and likeness licensing opportunities with their student-athletes," he wrote. "These two changes will enhance the financial opportunities available to all Division I student-athletes."

    Currently, schools are allowed -- though not required -- to provide athletes US$5,980 per year in educational benefits under NCAA rules.

    Baker said the changes would help level the playing field between men's and women's athletics by forcing schools to abide by gender equity regulations as they invest.

    He said schools in a new tier of Division I should be allowed, while staying compliant with Title IX, to "invest at least US$30,000 per year into an enhanced educational trust fund for at least half of the institution's eligible student-athletes."

    A new D-I subdivision should also allow members to create rules unique rules regarding "scholarship commitment and roster size, recruitment, transfers or NIL," he said.

    Mid-American Conference Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher said Baker's proposal merely defines what already exists: The power conference schools have separated themselves financially, already provide greater benefits to athletes and have some autonomy in the NCAA legislative process.

    "I think probably a lot of people are saying this is the precursor of the great breakaway (of power conferences from the NCAA)," Steinbrecher said. "I would suggest to you it's exactly the opposite. It's taking the pressure valve off."

    CTVNews.ca Top Stories

    The majority of mail-in ballots tallied this weekend for the final count in B.C.'s nail-bitingly close 2024 provincial election went to the NDP, increasing the party's chances of clinching a third term.

    A major amusement park is part of Ontario's grand vision to turn the Niagara region into Las Vegas north, but Marineland may not fit the bill, the provincial tourism minister says.

    Trump's Madison Square Garden event features crude and racist insults

    Donald Trump took the stage Sunday night at New York's Madison Square Garden to deliver his campaign's closing argument with the election nine days away after several of his allies used crude and racist insults toward U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris and other critics of the former president.

    Canada

    • A major amusement park is part of Ontario's grand vision to turn the Niagara region into Las Vegas north, but Marineland may not fit the bill, the provincial tourism minister says.

    • Toronto police say a suspect vehicle involved in a downtown shooting Sunday night that left one person seriously injured crashed into an Etobicoke school and caught fire.

    • Monday is the first full day of campaigning in the Nova Scotia provincial election.

    • Last year, seven-year-old Jack was diagnosed with hereditary spastic paraplegia type four (SPG4), a disease that affects less than 0.01 per cent of the population.

    • A massive mudslide closed the freeway south of the Canada-U.S. border in Bellingham, Wash. Sunday.

    World

    Politics

    Health

    Sci-Tech

    Entertainment

    Business

    Lifestyle

    Sports

    Autos

    Local Spotlight

    The Westfield & District Recreation Association hosted its first Witches and Warlocks on the Water event Saturday, with costumed paddlers in pointed hats launching from Westfield Beach.

    A new resident at a Manitoba animal rescue has waddled her way into people's hearts.

    Hundreds of people ran to the music of German composer and pianist Beethoven Wednesday night in a unique race in Halifax.

    He is a familiar face to residents of a neighbourhood just west of Roncesvalles Avenue.

    A meteor lit up our region's sky last night 鈥 with a large fireball shooting across the horizon over Lake Erie at around 7:00 p.m.

    Residents of Ottawa's Rideauview neighbourhood say an aggressive wild turkey has become a problem.

    A man who lost his life while trying to rescue people from floodwaters, and a 13-year-old boy who saved his family from a dog attack, are among the Nova Scotians who received a medal for bravery Tuesday.

    A newly minted Winnipegger is hoping a world record attempt will help bring awareness for the need for more pump track facilities in the city.

    A Springfield, Ont. man is being hailed a 'hero' after running into his burning home to save his two infant children.

    • The majority of mail-in ballots tallied this weekend for the final count in B.C.'s nail-bitingly close 2024 provincial election went to the NDP, increasing the party's chances of clinching a third term.

    • Two of the three recounts in B.C.鈥檚 2024 provincial election have been completed, with no change to the standings in either riding.

    • A person is in hospital with life-threatening injuries following a two-vehicle collision in Surrey Sunday afternoon.

    • Toronto police say a suspect vehicle involved in a downtown shooting Sunday night that left one person seriously injured crashed into an Etobicoke school and caught fire.

    • A major amusement park is part of Ontario's grand vision to turn the Niagara region into Las Vegas north, but Marineland may not fit the bill, the provincial tourism minister says.

    • A Calgary MP is collecting names on a petition in hopes of saving the Olympic Plaza bricks.

    • Tracey Rice's son Dylan Sparks is the reason she has spent the better part of a decade building para powerlifting to becoming a more common sport within the para athlete community.

    • One person is in hospital with potentially life-threatening injuries after a crash between a motorized scooter and a vehicle.

    • OC Transpo is pausing running on the new north-south light rail transit line over the next three days for 鈥渕inor construction activities,鈥 after the Trillium Line pulled into the station to complete the 21-day trial running period.

    • Ottawa implemented the new three-item limit on all households that receive curbside waste pickup on September 30, with the goal of extending the life of the Trail Road Waste Facility until 2024.

    • Ministry of Transportation traffic cameras showed a vehicle on fire on the shoulder of the eastbound lanes of Hwy. 417 near Moodie Drive at 6:40 a.m.

    • As synthetic drugs grow stronger, experts warn that overdoses pose an even greater threat, particularly to young people. Dr. Nicholas Chadi, a pediatrician at Sainte-Justine Hospital, is sounding the alarm about the rising dangers of these substances.

    • Montreal police is investigating after shots were fired in Kirkland on the West Island.

    • A pedestrian is dead after she was hit by a vehicle early Sunday morning in north-central Edmonton.

    • Leon Draisaitl scored his second goal of the game 18 seconds into overtime and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Detroit Red Wings 3-2 on Sunday night.

    • The King's representative to Canada is in Alberta for her first official visit to the province.

    • Monday is the first full day of campaigning in the Nova Scotia provincial election.

    • A snowfall warning is in effect in the Cape Breton Highlands with 'significant snowfall' in the forecast Monday.

    • Queen鈥檚 District RCMP in Nova Scotia is investigating a single-vehicle fatal collision that occurred Saturday on Highway 103 in Port Mouton, N.S.

    • Winnipeg police are looking for a suspect after they say a man was attacked by someone with a machete early Friday morning.

    • Winnipeg police have arrested and charged a man believed to be connected with an assault at a University of Manitoba dorm room.

    • Candidates across Saskatchewan are making their final pitches to potential voters as the 2024 election campaign is quickly approaching its end.

    • Election day has arrived in Saskatchewan. With it, the last wave of voters prepare to cast their ballots and decide who will form government in the province.

    • The Regina Thunder fell to the Okanagan Sun in the Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) semi-finals 鈥 as it attempted to secure a chance at the national title.

    • A team of researchers at the University of Waterloo are introducing a technology capable of delivering an entire course of antibiotics in one tiny dose.

    • Ontario is moving to extend a 5.7-cent cut to the provincial gas tax until next summer.

    • Candidates across Saskatchewan are making their final pitches to potential voters as the 2024 election campaign is quickly approaching its end.

    • Election day has arrived in Saskatchewan. With it, the last wave of voters prepare to cast their ballots and decide who will form government in the province.

    • It's been a long month of policy announcements, campaigning, new promises, and speculation leading up to today. Polls are set to close Monday evening, and the outcome will shape the next four years of Saskatchewan's government.

    • Victor Garber got teary-eyed when he walked into a brunch in his honour Sunday in London, Ont.

    • Trillium Care in Norwich, Ont. has announced they will be closing their facilities, citing 鈥渁n emergency lack of financial resources necessary to sustain daily operations.鈥

    • Two new interchanges have opened in St. Thomas, Ont. but one main artery is set to close Monday for construction.

    • Huntsville OPP and the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) are conducting a homicide investigation after three individuals were found dead in a Huntsville neighbourhood Friday evening.

    • Bracebridge OPP are searching for two suspects who allegedly broke into a Gravenhurst jewelry store early Saturday morning.

    • A man was charged after allegedly crashing into a parked OPP cruiser in Tay Township early Sunday morning.

    • HAPPENING NOW

      HAPPENING NOW

      According to AM800 News, the fire broke out at the home next to an apartment building around 3 a.m.

    • Windsor-Tecumseh MPP Andrew Dowie has been acclaimed as the Ontario Progressive Conservative party鈥檚 representative for the riding in the next provincial election.

    • One suspect has been arrested after an armed robbery took place in Windsor.

    • The majority of mail-in ballots tallied this weekend for the final count in B.C.'s nail-bitingly close 2024 provincial election went to the NDP, increasing the party's chances of clinching a third term.

    • There were tense moments at a ferry terminal outside Victoria, B.C., on Friday after the lion鈥檚 share of standby spots on an early sailing were claimed by 鈥渁ssured loading鈥 passengers 鈥 leaving regular customers who had been waiting for hours out of luck.

    • Hulitan Early Years Centre is a brand new, 48-seat childhood learning centre in Colwood. It was built to support Indigenous children throughout the capital region.

    • More than two years after Alannah Brown and Douglas Barker were found dead north of Penticton, police are asking for help identifying a vehicle they believe was associated with the crime.

    • Dave Lindsey began growing giant pumpkins to bring a bit of magic to his grandkids' Halloween.

    • A U.S. District Court judge in Montana has sentenced a 27-year-old man from Kelowna, B.C., to 18 months in prison for using fake names to buy guns with the aim of selling them in Canada.

    • A tentative agreement has been reached between the City of Lethbridge and more than 900 employees belonging to CUPE Local 70.

    • The Hurricanes will be happy to be back home in Lethbridge Saturday night after losing their third in a row on the road Friday night, a 4-1 decision to the Broncos in Swift Current.

    • About 15,000 students are enrolled at Lethbridge鈥檚 post-secondary schools, and now the city is working with those schools to try to find ways to get them s to stick around a while.

    • A female athlete from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., achieved two big goals at the 2024 World Triathlon championships in Spain last weekend.

    • Creditors have moved to take ownership of most of the properties in northern Ontario owned by a group of 11 insolvent companies.

    • Ontario Provincial Police have been cleared in the case of a woman who crashed her vehicle intentionally while she was high on drugs and fled into the woods earlier this year.

    N.L.

    Shopping Trends

    The Shopping Trends team is independent of the journalists at 愛污传媒. We may earn a commission when you use our links to shop.聽Read about us.

    Stay Connected
    Follow 愛污传媒