West Virginia Athletic Director Wren Baker acknowledged that the media has unfortunately had to see him too many times in press conferences preparing for coaching searches over the past two and a half years.
But he believes himself to be certainly the resilient type.
“I think I’m actually calmer in times like this than I probably am when times are calm. And a little bit of that’s intentional. When everybody else is kind of calm, I think as a leader, you kind of want to apply a little pressure. When everybody else is a little panicked, you want to show great calmness,” Baker said.
Part of that is a requirement of the role, but more of it is his overall confidence in the West Virginia basketball program with the rich tradition and history that it has over the years.
West Virginia has not been a flash-in-the-pan, one-trick pony and instead has experienced sustained success under a lot of different coaches along with a very devoted fanbase. And those are things that should allow Baker to go through the search process and find a new head coach.
“I know there’ll be a conclusion here in the next few days. We’ll hire a new coach, we’ll bring him here and introduce him, and they’ll start to build support and rally the fan base,” he said. “And we’ll start talking about next year.”
But the changes in the landscape with the future of college athletics are still very much a wait and see because of all of the unknowns. There is of course the House Settlement and the introduction of revenue sharing and how that will work out on top of what name, image and likeness will look like in the future.
“You’re always thinking about those and you’re always wondering how you can arrive at building a map to navigate them when you don’t really know where the end point of your destination is,” Baker said.
There’s also the concern over the financial gap between the majority of FBS schools and the SEC and Big 10. Baker cited Kentucky as an example and pointed out that their budget is probably around $40 million more which is largely funded by the distribution by the SEC.
So that is definitely something to think about moving forward with all the uncertainty around the sport and how that distribution is at least cemented for those leagues. But West Virginia has the resources to compete within the Big 12 and is able to tell any coach that is interested in the job that as well.
In terms of revenue sharing, everybody also will be working off the same cap number and the Mountaineers will be at that number. That is another sign that the program will be able to compete long-term.
Baker admittedly doesn’t know the end game when it comes to conference realignment, or he would have already engineered a path for the Mountaineers to be positioned well when that time comes. But he does believe that the past is typically the best predictor of the future.
“You have a lot of concern from the outside world about consolidation, continued consolidation amongst power conferences and power conference programs,” Baker said.
As conferences continue to get larger with more brands planted in more time zones and geographical areas, the one thing that is constantly on his mind is the brand that West Virginia possesses.
That includes viewership totals, and valuations when looking at different metrics such as licensing revenue, brand awareness and TV viewership for the major sports.
“And so, the best way you can position yourself for the future of whatever's going to happen in college athletics is to be successful today,” Baker said.
That is the primary focus for Baker as he is constantly focused on trying to be prepared for whatever is around the corner with everything that constantly can change.
Still, the athletic director loves what he does despite some of the challenges both in the immediate and long term that he would prefer not to go through. But improving the program is always at the forefront.
“I can't predict exactly what that change will be, but we're going to do everything we can to make sure that West Virginia's in the middle of it,” Baker said.
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