NCAA President Charlie Baker was certainly one of higher than 41,000 individuals readily available Saturday as a brand new HBCU soccer champion was topped.
In an unique interview with HBCU Gameday, Baker informed Tolly Carr he made it some extent to be on the recreation during which SWAC Champion Florida A&M defeated MEAC Champion 30-26.
“I made a dedication once I was speaking to the conferences that I needed to come back to this recreation,” Baker informed Carr. “I additionally needed to go to another video games beforehand and household stuff and different issues acquired in the best way. So I’m very glad to be right here. I’m additionally going to go to the basketball match, which I’m actually trying ahead to as properly. However I believe for me, this can be a probability to simply see a few of the most storied and prestigious establishments within the nation go for it.”
The Celebration Bowl comes close to the tip of his first calendar yr as president of the most important athletic affiliation in school athletics.
“You might name it thrilling. I would name it extra like turbulent, however I definitely I anticipated anticipated that this was going to be a difficult time for faculty sports activities,” Baker stated. “And as a former school athlete married to a former school athlete with two school athletes who’re who’re youngsters and one other school athlete is my brother and plenty of associates, I assumed it was an essential time to be keen to step into this position.”
Charlie Baker talked concerning the impression that the commissioners of the 4 NCAA HBCU conferences — the CIAA, MEAC, SIAC and SWAC — have had by going to talk to Congress in latest months.
“(CIAA Commissioner) Jacqie McWilliams and I’ve talked fairly a bit about this, and I personally imagine that the HBCUs have as a lot affect or extra as nearly anyone else who goes down there and talks to individuals. Their voices actually matter,” Baker stated. “I may really feel a change in a few of the conversations I used to be having with individuals within the Home and the Senate after the HBCU use paid visits down there, and I assume it’s up there from right here. It’s down from Massachusetts to Washington. They’re actually essential and so they matter. And they need to be essential and they need to matter.”
Baker talked about a number of methods he thinks the NCAA can help HBCUs particularly, together with serving to broaden their fan bases and serving to with the prices of operating an athletics division.
“We’ve by no means actually tried to create a buying collaborative as a as a company, and but we’ve got 1100 members,” Baker famous. “They purchase a ton of the identical stuff. We are able to save all people ten, 15, 20 p.c of what they pay for all of the product that they purchase to help their applications. It’s actual cash that they may flip round and reinvest in different issues.”
Take a look at the complete interview on our YouTube channel.
