NCAA announces Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker as new president

Current Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker will succeed Mark Emmert as the next president of the NCAA.

This is according to a report from ESPN, which states that Baker, who has been Massachusett's governor since January 2015, will take over the NCAA on March 1st, 2023. Baker will finish his second term in the state house this January, thus he'll be free to take over once Emmert steps down.

"I think it's worth doing," Baker said or his decision to take over the reins of the NCAA. "It's big and complicated, but so have been a lot of the things I've done in my life. Most of the time they were absolutely worth doing."

Baker is a former college athlete, having played power forward at Harvard from 1977-1978. Though he doesn't have any previous administrative experience at the collegiate level or specifically in athletics, he will be a valued piece of the puzzle for the NCAA because of his ability to reach across the isle and work with multiple viewpoints to achieve a common goal.

This is according to Baylor University president Linda Livingstone, who led the NCAA board of governors in its search for a new president. 

"Governor Baker has shown a remarkable ability to bridge divides and build bipartisan consensus, taking on complex challenges in innovative and effective ways. 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. These skills and perspective will be invaluable as we work with policymakers to build a sustainable model for the future of college athletics," she said in a statement.

Baker's predecessor, Emmert, assumed his current duties in November of 2010 and has overseen quite a bit, including the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal at Penn State, several rounds of conference expansion, and the creation of the College Football Playoff.