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

LAS VEGAS — NCAA president Charlie Baker wants to create a new tier of Division I where schools with the most athletic resources can offer unlimited educational benefits, enter into name, image and likeness partnerships with athletes and directly pay them through a trust fund.

In a letter sent Tuesday to more than 350 Division I schools, Baker told members that the disparity in resources between the wealthiest schools in the Football Bowl Subdivision and other DI 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,” Baker wrote.

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Baker said the difference in the way schools that participate in revenue-generating college sports operate and the vast majority of college sports is complicating attempts to modernize the collegiate sports model.

“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.

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.

The NCAA is also facing a new round of legal threats that could force members to share some of the billions in revenue generated by major college football and basketball, along with giving athletes employees status.