NCAA president Mark Emmert has gotten an contract extension through 2025, the association’s board of governors reported Tuesday.
Emmert, who has served in as NCAA president since November 2010, had been under contract through October 2023 with a option through 2024. The NCAA declared the extension as a part of a news release that included other action items from the board, including a commitment to modernize rules around name, image and likeness (NIL).
Emmert’s extension got consistent approval from the board.
In March, Georgetown president Jack DeGioia, the chair of the NCAA’s board of governors, gave Emmert a vote of confidence amid mounting criticism about disparities during the women’s Division I basketball tournaments. A few commissioners and athletic directors voiced concerns about Emmert’s authority in media reports in late March and early April.
Emmert, in a letter to staff, acknowledged that “a number of balls were dropped” at the NCAA women’s basketball tournament in San Antonio and that a full review would be led.
“I think it would be fair to say that Mark took this very, very seriously and all of my conversations with him — we have had several over the last 10 days — at no point did I ever have the sense that he wasn’t engaging this with the greatest seriousness possible,” DeGioia told The Associated Press in late March.
Emmert has additionally been facing scrutiny and political pressure factor for the NCAA’s inability to push ahead with proposed changes to its rules prohibiting athletes from bringing in cash off their NIL.
Many states have bills in the pipeline that will prohibit the NCAA from stopping college athletes from being compensated for endorsement and sponsorship deals. Florida and Mississippi are among the states with laws scheduled to become effective July 1.
Emmert and the NCAA have gone to government officials for assist with NIL. The NCAA is likewise anticipating a decision from the Supreme Court in an antitrust case the affiliation has been battling for quite a while.
Recently, the Greater Baton Rouge Business Journal announced that back-channel efforts were in progress to enroll Emmert to turn into LSU’s new president. Emmert, 68, filled in as LSU’s chancellor from 1999 to 2004, and he is close with athletic director Scott Woodward and others around the college and the athletic program.
He served as president at the University of Washington from 2004 until 2010, when he started his duties at the NCAA.
However, Emmert’s name didn’t appear on a list of candidates from LSU’s presidential search committee.