Wren Baker Discusses Revenue, Fundraising, Naming Rights, Playoff Expansion + More

West Virginia Director of Athletics Wren Baker spent an hour with the media on Tuesday afternoon for his annual end-of-year press conference to discuss the overall health of the athletic department, where things are heading in college sports, as well as strategies for scheduling, facilities, and fundraising.

I transcribed seven topics that I thought would be of most interest to Mountaineer fans. Here is what Baker was asked about and what he answered with.

The West Tower project at Milan Puskar Stadium

“That is going very well. We’re quietly doing the fundraising for that. I anticipate there will be updates there over the course of the summer, heading into the fall. But if all goes well, that project will be completed and open in time for the ’28 football season.”

Growing revenue

“For about a decade, our overall budget was fairly static. It grew some, regressed some during COVID, but it did not grow at the clip that we really needed to. This year’s budget and next year’s budget will exceed $150 million total, and so that’s probably roughly 50% growth from where we were three years ago.”

Update on MAC members/growth

“Right now, we’re right at about 7,000. The all-time high is 8,000, so we’re in the middle of a membership matters campaign, and we’re going to try and eclipse that 8,000 number, and we’re going to need your help to do it, from the people at home. Get your neighbor, get your friend, get the person that’s by you at church or at your kids’ games this summer to join the MAC. That’s really important. All time, prior to this year, we had four gifts of $5 million or more. We already have three inside this fiscal year, with four more that are verbaled that we are trying to get across the finish line. 2009, prior to this year, was our best fundraising year ever. I think our second-best was two years ago, and we will surpass that this year; it’s just a matter of how much. I think this is going to be far and away our best fundraising year ever.”

Weighing neutral site opportunities vs. another home game to help the economy/revenue

“When we get a neutral site opportunity, there’s a baseline number of games we expect to play in Morgantown, and are we hitting that? I would say it’s pretty non-negotiable that we always want at least six games here in Morgantown for football, for instance. We’d really like to have seven. But if you’re given the opportunity to play the right opponent and the financials make sense, and it’s in a place where you’re trying to engage donors and alums…we’ve made an emphasis on the Charlotte area, for instance. It’s always a place we do really well, so that’s a place we have really tried to plant our flag. You want to do what’s right by the state and community, but certain neutral-site games give you an opportunity to draw revenue, to hit a broader audience, to play an opponent that maybe doesn’t have it in their schedule to do two games. I think the other aspect that plays into that now is the NIL opportunities. And then lastly, when you look at NET scores, RPIs, and all those metrics, some of those neutral-site games are a good compromise. Especially in basketball, because you don’t get hit as hard in a negative way if you lose, and then conversely, if you win a neutral game, you are rewarded more than winning a game at home. You just kind of mitigate the loss a little bit and inflate the win.”

Naming rights update for Mountaineer Field or other facilities

“No imminent update on that, but we continue to explore every opportunity that brings in revenue. Rather, that’s sponsor patches, names for facilities trying to raise money the traditional way. But with our presence in the state, when we do a deal like that, it needs to be the right partner that has the right values that we can collectively can agree on how we want our brands co-branded and co-mingled.”

NCAA Tournament expansion

“I would say I want to see how the tournament expansion works and evaluate it. I would hope that we’re all willing to evaluate it after a year or two and see the impact. But what you had is as things have changed, and rosters are more transient, and power conference teams have more resources, there’s more talent being aggregated in those power conferences. As somebody who has worked at virtually every level of college athletics, I would not be in favor of pulling AQs from the mid-major leagues. I think that’s part of what makes the tournament special. But I think there were conversations around are those the best teams, especially as the talent is congregating more to the higher-resourced leagues. I think this was a compromise — let’s expand the field, keep the AQs, and it’s undetermined who those at-larges go to, but the vast majority of them end up going to power conference teams. I think the expansion was done in an effort to appease all sides of the equation.”

Possible College Football Playoff expansion

“College Football Playoff is a little different because right now, that’s a relatively small field. I do think it needs to be enlarged, just for representation. There are teams being left out who could win games and perhaps advance to the championship. What the right number is, I don’t know that I’m sure. I’d want to see how are we going to divvy up the additional revenue and how does that selection process work. I also think the opportunity to host those games on campuses… the environment for the women’s basketball regional was electric. Just a buzz from well before the game even started, and I was thinking, man, can you imagine what it would be like hosting a College Football Playoff game here in Morgantown? You have to take the calendar into account, the wear and tear on players’ bodies. What’s going to happen to championship games? When do you start the season? When do you conclude? Portal… there’s so many other things to be worked out, so that’s why I leave a little wiggle room to say I’d like to know more of the details as we get there, but definitely favor expansion.”

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