It can be simple to believe that your preferred program is in a potentially difficult situation going forward given the constantly changing landscape of collegiate athletics.
It’s difficult to predict what Division 1 sports will look like in 10 to 20 years due to conference realignment, intense negotiations over the future of the College Football Playoff, and lawsuits like the one filed by RaeQuan Battle of West Virginia, which challenges established NCAA rules and regulations.
Fortunately for West Virginians, however, a lot of the recent news out of Morgantown indicates that the athletic department at WVU is headed in the right direction.
Wren Baker, the Mountaineers’ current athletic director, appears to have been the mastermind behind a large portion of their successful expansion. Baker has presented a plan for expanding the athletic department as well as a friendly public image that seems ingratiating to prospective employees and benefactors ever since he was hired in late 2022.
The appointment of Mark Kellogg as the first-year coach of women’s basketball is one significant move that has already shown results. Having come from a wealth of mid-major success, Kellogg’s first season as head coach has seen the team post a 23-6 overall record—the best winning record for a first-year coach in program history. It also appears likely that this season, he will get the Mountaineers to at least make an NCAA Tournament trip.
It’s difficult to argue that the WVU program could be in better hands given that women’s basketball could be moving up in terms of sports producing revenue and brand recognition for athletic departments, especially with stars like Caitlin Clark of the Iowa Hawkeyes becoming household names and the sport’s attendance steadily rising.
Additionally, Baker has backed the Country Roads Trust, a collective focusing on Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) that acts as a platform for fundraising and distributes NIL deals to WVU athletes. Established in 2022, the trust asserts that it has helped more than 300 WVU student-athletes take advantage of NIL opportunities.
After the collective successfully attracted 1,500 members who were actively committing money, an anonymous payment of $500,000 was made to the organization. That money probably went a long way toward ensuring that many well-known figures in their respective sports stay in Morgantown, especially those from the 9-4 football team from the previous season who inked contracts with the Country Roads Trust early in the offseason. In order to help the Trust reach its target, Baker even publicly participated in the fundraising process by promising to take part in a mayonnaise bath provided by Duke’s Mayo.
