Final approval of the multi-billion-dollar legal settlement between the NCAA and Division I college athletes means the schools will now share billions of dollars in revenue with those athletes. The agreement changes the face of college sports forever, and in ways not imaginable just a few years ago.
Going forward, schools will pay college athletes directly. The maximum for distribution starting this fiscal year is $20.5 million with an increase of 4% in subsequent years through the 2034-35 season. For West Virginia University’s Department of Athletics, the fundamental question is this: Where do they find the money?
The answer is — in one way — quite simple. The bulk of the payments will come from ticket sales and Big 12 Conference revenue. But that is just a reallocation of existing resources from a budget that totaled approximately $106 million in 2024-25.
So, Director of Athletics Wren Baker and his team are proposing a series of fundraising steps to fill the gap. Here are a few of them:
Sponsor naming rights for the Coliseum and Mountaineer Field
Additional premium seating for football and basketball
Expanded use of the WVU trademark and logo
Additional fees for WVU merchandise and concessions
Greater financial support from the WVU Foundation and the Mountaineer Athletic Club
Separate, but related, is the athletic department’s creation of Gold and Blue Enterprises. That in-house entity will coordinate the NIL opportunities for WVU athletes.
Collectively, these new initiatives are designed to keep WVU athletics competitive in this rapidly changing environment. Baker’s challenge, which he has talked about repeatedly, is to aggressively pursue new revenue sources to a level comparable with the rest of the Big 12.
Baker’s pitch to all who will listen is that WVU sports have been punching above their weight class, considering WVU spends below the Big 12 median in nearly every sport.
“This is not a new problem, this has been a developing problem,†Baker said on a recent edition of the podcast "3 Guys Before the Game." “We don’t have to be number one [in conference athletic department budgets]. We do need to get our budget to where it is in the top half of the league. If we do that, I’m confident we can compete in the top end of the Big 12 across the board.â€
West Virginia University has a long and proud sports tradition. It can be argued that the teams are at the forefront of the university’s visibility, and even viability.
Some do not like the revolutionary changes of late, but this is the new reality. Colleges that want their sports teams to remain competitive and to continue attracting fans and television audiences have no choice but to adopt a new business model or be relegated to an athletic afterthought.
Hoppy Kercheval is the retired host of "Talkline," on MetroNews.Â
