NCAA president’s proposal to restructure Division I, pay athletes earns Ohio State AD’s endorsement

COLUMBUS, Ohio — NCAA President Charlie Baker’s proposal to radically change the Division I landscape gained immediate support from Ohio State’s leadership.

Athletic director Gene Smith took to X, formerly Twitter, to repost Baker’s summation of his proposal. It calls for, among other things, the option to directly pay athletes for name, image and likeness opportunities and the creation of a new Division I subdivision for the wealthiest athletic programs.

“Thank you, @CharlieBakerMA for your leadership,” Smith wrote. “I am 100% supportive of your efforts. Intercollegiate Athletics needs the proactive and forward thinking you are providing. Thank you for this letter!”

Baker announced the proposal of “several fundamental changes” in a letter to Division I members. Its most significant aspect is the creation of a subdivision in which schools would “invest at least $30,000 per year into an enhanced educational trust fund for at least half of the institution’s eligible student-athletes.” (Such payments would work within the framework of Title IX, the federal law ensuring gender equity.)

Not only would those schools be allowed to compensate athletes at higher levels than ever before, they would be allowed to work together to craft new guidelines for everything from recruiting and transfer rules to roster size to NIL. Participation in this tier would be voluntary.

Ohio State runs the largest athletic program in the country, including around 1,000 athletes. This proposal would require a roughly $15 million annual investment by OSU into that trust fund. That compensation would be on top of the scholarships athletes receive.

As such, Smith’s eager endorsement carries some weight.

Smith had already begun making changes to the athletic department budget to account for future expenditures in how athletes are compensated. That included tapping new revenue streams or offsets, such as a facilities maintenance fee charged to all tickets.

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Baker’s proposal also would allow Division I schools to enter into NIL deals with their athletes. Current NCAA rules prohibit schools from making NIL payments directly or indirectly, though rules have been relaxed over time to allow them to provide more structural assistance.

The proposal also would allow Division I schools to “offer student-athletes any level of enhanced educational benefits they deem appropriate.”

Baker’s letter said this proposal will allow the schools with the biggest brands and most financial resources to operate under a different set of rules that reflects that larger scale. It would do so without forcing those expectations onto institutions who do not have those same resources.

The NCAA currently faces multiple antitrust lawsuits. Last month, a federal judge granted class certification to three separate groups of athletes in House vs. NCAA. Initially filed in 2020, the suit grew to include 10,000 athletes who participated from 2016 until now. It argues the NCAA’s amateurism rules illegally blocked athletes from maximizing their financial earnings prior to the organization allowing compensation for NIL.

If that suit succeeds, legal analysts said it could cost the NCAA billions of dollars.

Additionally, federal legislators have also scrutinized the NCAA system and proposed bills to govern NIL income.

Smith has in the past advocated for federal legislation to govern NIL. He did so in the absence of NCAA leadership stepping up with its own plan. Baker changed that dynamic Tuesday.