Charlie Baker took over as president of the NCAA following the retirement of Mark Emmert last year. His goals are clearly bigger than just maintaining the status quo for the organization. He made that clear again over the weekend in Washington, DC.
Baker was on stage at an event called The Future of College Sports, which was hosted by the University of Arizona.
At the event, Baker discussed the NCAA’s financial performance. He said that in years past, the organization’s media strategy has left money on the table. He is hoping to change that soon.
“Those items are going to get a lot of attention from us over the course of what I would describe as the next four to six months,” he said.
In April, Baker told NBC’s Meet the Press that the NCAA is “going to work really hard” on an individual TV rights deal for the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament. Right now, it is included in a larger NCAA Championships television package that ESPN has through the end of the next school year.
Now it appears women’s basketball is only the tip of the iceberg. Forbes reports that “consensus is building” to take other tournaments currently covered in the NCAA Championships television package to market on their own. They include softball, baseball, and women’s volleyball.
Higher education in America is in a bit of a financial crisis after the years of decreased fertility around the 2008 financial collapse. The children of that generation are coming of age now where they begin to look at colleges. With far fewer applicants expected in the coming years, the NCAA’s financial performance has never been more important to the industry.
Baker is not stopping at new media rights deals. He also raised some eyebrows by discussing ways conferences and the NCAA as a whole could monetize relationships with sportsbooks.
