NCAA President Charlie Baker spoke about the significant progress made in college sports and critical challenges that remain for the Association in his annual State of College Sports address (full video above) at the 2026 NCAA Convention in the Washington, D.C., area.
Baker addressed how the NCAA has enhanced the way it's serving student-athletes, schools and fans. He cited increased scholarships and unprecedented direct financial benefits for student-athletes, record-breaking participation, new championships, fiscal responsibility and enhanced storytelling through media rights partners like ESPN.
In his third year as NCAA president, Baker also underscored the need for a collective response to ongoing challenges such as eligibility-related lawsuits, sports betting and prediction markets.
On the prediction markets issue, Baker announced the NCAA will be petitioning the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to pause all college sport commodities offerings until the agency can develop regulations like those that govern legal sportsbooks.
Below are a few of Baker's remarks. The full speech is available on the NCAA YouTube channel, as well.
On benefits to student-athletes
"Divisions I and II combined provided a staggering $4.1 billion in scholarships. $4.1 billion in scholarships makes college sports the largest provider of free financial aid to American students after the federal government. Put another way — it's almost twice as much as the state of California hands out in college aid.
"We grew the number of opportunities for student-athletes to compete to 556,000 Association-wide, which happens to be the most ever. This marks eight consecutive years of increases. In DI, the total number of opportunities to compete grew to its highest level in 40 years. And DI is on track to continue this growth — despite cost pressures we know are wildly difficult to manage. …
"Student-athletes are on track to receive over $1 billion in new, direct financial benefits from their schools this year. Combined with scholarships and other aid, that adds up to about 50% of (Autonomous 4) revenue — going right to the young people we serve. And, on top of this, we worked together to completely reform how DI operates by doubling student-athlete votes on our boards."
On college sports' biggest challenges
"There is no better rule or quick fix that solves the problems we face — not without tremendous downside. We should all beware of those quick fixes. There's usually a middleman who stands to gain. And beware of the solution that works for only 5% of the student-athletes we serve and would come at a steep cost to the other 95%. It's our job collectively to consider the future Olympians and the future leaders we serve just the same.
"There's no question that the 5% matters a lot. It's where almost all the challenges are stemming from. Judges are ordering the NCAA to grant sixth, seventh and eighth years of playing time. Attorneys general and judges are rewriting transfer policies overnight. In each of these cases, a representative of a member school supported those lawsuits — showing up in court, filing affidavits. The attacks on the rules are not only coming from outside the membership. It's a tiny fraction of the membership, to be sure, but they are destabilizing 100% of our athletics programs. There is no more perfect rule or bylaw that can overcome that. That's not to say we can't make progress — we have to, and we will."
On the need to work with Congress
"We have to engage the federal government — not to run college sports but to stabilize them. When I was in front of you last year, we talked about how only Congress can address many of the challenges we face. For better or worse, that's still true. But it's clear we need to respond to the message lawmakers are sending and focus on areas of common ground. …
"In Congress, I believe there is common ground around the period of eligibility, academic standards, reasonable transfer policies and other bedrock principles. Through targeted intervention on only the narrowest of issues in Congress, combined with our continued internal transformations, I think we can build the system today's athletes require.
"Now, I have been a part of a lot of difficult efforts to craft legislation on difficult issues. Sometimes, to make progress, we have to break issues up, make incremental progress where we can, and then come back to what we can't. But we will get nowhere, regardless of the issue, if we as college sports leaders are not on the same page."
On sports betting
"We need federal guardrails to protect the integrity of the game. And, in addition to the areas mentioned previously, this need is particularly urgent as it relates to sports betting. Legalization has brought with it a host of threats to our games and to student-athletes.
"In response, the NCAA built the largest integrity monitoring program in the world. We educate hundreds of thousands of student-athletes about the rules and the risks of sports betting. We find and report threatening messages athletes receive online. We teamed up with Venmo because student-athletes were getting harassed by bettors with gambling debts. Our enforcement team uncovered student-athletes who manipulated their performance to win bets. We caught coaches trading inside information. We took action and banned those responsible. But the sports betting industry's response has been a shoulder shrug. …
"And it's about to get worse. So-called prediction markets are offering what anyone can see is unregulated betting on college games. One operator, Kalshi, made plans to start taking bets on the Transfer Portal … until we called them out, and they backed down — for now. Just as we need Congress to stabilize eligibility, we need federal regulators to stabilize this market.
"That's why today we petitioned the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to pause all college sport commodities offerings until the agency can develop the same regulations that legal sportsbooks operate under. Whether it's transfer windows or prop bets, the answer cannot be the status quo. We need one set of fair, transparent standards.
"The NCAA has led a more aggressive response to sports betting than any league in the country, and I really hope more will join us in this effort."
