NCAA prez open to President Donald Trump's idea of commission - ESPN

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — NCAA president Charlie Baker said Monday he was «up for anything» when asked about a President Trump-proposed commission on collegiate athletics.

Reports surfaced last week that President Trump was going to create the commission.

While his conversations at ACC meetings with league football coaches, men's and women's basketball coaches, athletic directors and other school officials focused on governance and the pending House settlement, Baker was asked during an informal press availability for his thoughts on the presidential commission.

«I think the fact that there's an interest on the executive side on this, I think it speaks to the fact that everybody is paying a lot of attention right now to what's going on in college sports,» Baker said.

«I'm up for anything that can help us get somewhere.»

Baker noted the NCAA has already spent time in Washington asking for congressional help that is focused on three big issues. Among the biggest: A patchwork of state laws that relate to how collegiate athletics work in individual states; and whether student-athletes should be considered employees.

«I think [Congress] can help us. I really do,» ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said during an interview with ACC Network. «We have been very bold in the desire for a national standard when it comes to name, image and likeness. We need to make sure that we have something that comes out of Washington that connects all 50 of the states because we've had a piecemeal project and it's really undermined college sports. It's been a race to the bottom. So that's one. Two is we need some legal protection. We cannot sustain one legal case after another legal case after another legal case. A reaffirmation that these are