Charlie Baker says college sports can help colleges navigate declining enrollment and financial strain.
Speaking in Boston on Thursday, the former Massachusetts governor and current president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association linked athletic success to increased visibility and student interest, while acknowledging broader structural challenges affecting colleges and universities nationwide.
Asked about the salaries of University of Massachusetts coaches — which regularly place among the highest for public employees in the state — Baker said those decisions are made at the campus level, but added that athletics can contribute to an institutional identity.
“[Coach pay] is a decision for the chancellor and the board,” Baker told reporters, after speaking to the Boston College Chief Executives Club. “I do believe that sports can play a big role in creating brand.”
He continued, “When the UMass hockey team won the national championship a few years ago, it created — I remember talking to Chancellor Subbaswamy at that time, and he said it really bumped our admissions in a pretty big way.”
Baker said similar patterns have played out at other institutions, where high-profile athletic success can lead to increased interest from prospective students.
“I actually think part of the reason people are spending money on sports, in many cases, is because sports build brand and brand matters,” he said.
“If you look at the things that some schools have done with their athletic programs to create brand and visibility and applications,” he said, “High Point, they beat Wisconsin in the second round of the NCAA tournament. They got 19,000 requests the next day for student business.”
His comments come as higher education institutions face multiple pressures, including declining numbers of college-aged students, shifting perceptions about the value of a degree, and growing competition from alternative education pathways.
“The biggest challenge everybody in higher education is going to have is there just aren’t as many kids as there used to be,” Baker said. “My oldest, who’s now 34, was part of the largest group of 18 year olds ever. And that number has been going down every year since then, and it’s expected to keep going down for a long time.”
He pointed out that online learning options and other nontraditional pathways have expanded in recent years, contributing to changes in how students approach higher education.
“There’s also been a fair amount of conversation about what’s the plus-minus of a college education relative to choosing other paths?” Baker said. “The online opportunities around education are far bigger than they’ve ever been.”
Baker said institutions should assess their strengths and focus resources accordingly, including decisions about athletics programs.
“There are a bunch of schools that leverage their success in athletics to serve their academic mission in extraordinary ways,” he said. “I think every school is different. I think people need to think real hard about what they think they can be great at, whatever it might be, and then they need to focus on that.”
Though now speaking as the head of college athletics, Baker’s experience is also informed by overseeing higher education issues as governor.
He held that office during an era when several small private colleges in Massachusetts closed or faced financial distress. The 2018 closure of Mount Ida College drew statewide attention, and the trend has continued. This month Hampshire College announced plans to close, highlighting ongoing challenges for smaller institutions.
Baker also addressed the regulatory environment surrounding college athletics, pointing to the need for clearer rules.
“If I could have one thing … it would probably be some narrow provision that would make it possible for us to put rules in place that could stick,” he said, responding to a question about regulatory or legislative changes he would seek from Congress in an ideal world.
“And when I say that, I mean things like academic eligibility period. We have all kinds of folks trying to get a sixth, seventh and eighth year. They don’t get it from us, and then they go get it from the judge who graduated from their school. No offense to judges,” he said.
Baker said changes could help create “certainty and stability.”
“A lot of the stuff I would look for is not that dramatic,” he said, “but it would make a huge difference with respect to creating certainty and stability, which are two things I know higher ed folks care about a lot.”
