The 2025-26 West Virginia University athletics season is underway with both men's and women's soccer kicking off the year.
The other fall sports will fall in line with their schedules over the next few weeks, including football starting next Saturday as WVU takes on Robert Morris.
WVU vice president and director of athletics Wren Baker enters his fourth season in Morgantown.
It's been a busy, indeed chaotic, tenure thus far for the Oklahoma native.
However, he remains sanguine as to where WVU athletics stands.
Under the football microscope
Excitement abounds in the university city for the upcoming football season, especially with the return of coach Rich Rodriguez for the first time since 2007.
That excitement has resonated with season ticket sales at WVU, as those sales have amassed 32,000, according to Baker.
He mentioned that he expects that number to rest around 32,500 when it's all said and done.
"Last year, we were a little over 28,000," Baker said to the media on Friday. "Massive increase. That shows a lot of enthusiasm with our fans. The most exciting part is that you have some nonrenewals. We have over 9,500 season ticket holders. It'll be our job to keep those people on board and grow that number."
The WVU Athletic Department announced last Friday that there will be a new first come, first serve basis with student ticketing.
In the past, students would enter their name into a lottery then get tickets for either upper or lower seating, with lower seating normally given to upperclassmen.
The lottery will remain in place but will be open to everyone for either level of seating for students.
"It's been very frustrating," Baker said. "To have more requests and actually have to advance to the lottery system to award tickets. Then game kicks off and you have a whole bunch of empty seats in that lower. That's been a challenge. We've tried other ways to address it. We have not been able to have a real solution. I like that we rewarded our upperclassmen and people who have been here the longest. They just weren't showing up in that lower level like they needed to."
Future for football scheduling
A decision was made Thursday by the Southeastern Conference to go from scheduling eight conference games to nine, which will be implemented in 2026.
The SEC will continue to play without divisions, but the goal in mind is for each member school to play three annual opponents, with a primary focus on keeping traditional rivalries, then the six other games will be rotated among other member schools.
The news does bring up questions as to what WVU's nonconference schedule will look like in the coming years, especially next season.
The Mountaineers are scheduled to welcome the Alabama Crimson Tide to Morgantown to open the 2026 season before trading a trip to Tuscaloosa in 2027.
WVU's other two nonconference games in 2026 include a home game against UT Martin then a trip to Charlotte to take on the Virginia Cavaliers.
The Big 12 Conference plays nine games within the league, only giving room for three nonconference opportunities.
"We'll know more in the next few days," Baker said. "That announcement did not surprise me. We've had multiple conversations over the spring and summer with a lot of different opponents planning for the future. We'll certainly circle up and see where we're at. We don't want any instability in our nonconference schedule. I think it'll be very important to solidify that sooner rather than later.
"I've made it known that when you're playing nine power conference games inside your conference that really one power conference opportunity is the right opportunity. Maybe that gives us a chance to clean that up."
The scheduling questions for WVU fans immediately get directed toward the future of the Backyard Brawl between the Mountaineers and Pitt Panthers.
The two programs will meet this season one last time before a three-year hiatus, then kick back up the rivalry in 2029 in Pittsburgh.
Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi was at the podium at this year's ACC Media Day and voiced his support for continuing the historic rivalry.
"A few days before [Narduzzi's comments] were made, I had reached out to the athletic director at Pitt to extend the series," Baker said. "They knew fully well we were trying to extend the series. That didn't come up until they decided to make that comment. We're looking at a lot of things when we look at scheduling. We're trying to build a schedule that does allow us to sell tickets and create interest.
"We're trying to build a schedule that affords our team the best opportunity to have the kind of season they need to have to get to advance to the [College Football Playoff]."
Baker also mentioned the potential bringing people to West Virginia as an economic driver for tourism.
"We're also trying to build a schedule that brings people to West Virginia and Morgantown," Baker said. "I'm a huge believer that when you look at the economics of our state, economy of our state and the opportunities for business in our state. Tourism is one of, if not the biggest [driver]. Any opportunity we have for home games that brings people that may not come to West Virginia, if not for that, have them fill up our hotel rooms and experience the fall in our state.
"I believe it is a responsibility of ours to promote tourism in our state."
Upgrading seating at venues
If Baker had a whiteboard in his office for ideas to generate new revenue for the Mountaineers, it would more than likely be full with plenty of his ideas.
One of the ideas that he suggested on Friday is expanding seating at WVU's bigger facilities like Milan Puskar Stadium and the WVU Coliseum.
He mentioned that for WVU to remain competitive then it needs a significant investment in those facilities.
He did state, in an interview with the Gazette-Mail this summer, that he is looking to see the possibilities for businesses to be affiliated with venues.
"We have had a fairly thorough assessment of all of our facilities [for expanding seating]," Baker said. "Where our focus is right now is in the Coliseum is there a way to create some premium seating that's not super costly. When it comes to the stadium, that's a more costly endeavor. We have to create more premium, club, loge, ledge and every kind of seating opportunity there is we have. By percentage of our capacity, we have the lowest percentage of premium [seating] in the Big 12 and in the country.
"Where that becomes a problem is those seats sell for higher. They require a higher donation. It starts to become a self-fulfilling prophecy where you're always a have-not because you don't have those levers to leverage people to give and donate more money."
Jimmori Robinson update
UTSA transfer Jimmori Robinson was one of four WVU players who fought against the NCAA for eligibility this season.
U.S. District Judge John Preston Bailey awarded Robinson, Tye Edwards, Justin Harrington and Jeffrey Weimer a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction on Wednesday, granting eligibility and the ability to play in 2025.
The players were denied eligibility waivers by the NCAA, which prompted the court hearing, when they transferred to West Virginia.
The NCAA ruled that Robinson was unable to participate when he transferred in, stating that he was academically ineligible. Robinson's academic status is still in question. Yet, it seems Robinson will be able to play this upcoming season.
"We have our general counsel working with our compliance officer," Baker said. "We've engaged with the Big 12 and then they have or will engage with the NCAA to make sure we know what the judge's ruling is at a high level to make sure we're interpreting it the right way and not putting the institution at a high risk.
"We haven't sued anybody in terms of WVU. We're a part of the NCAA. We don't make those rules. Sometimes people are like, 'You guys are suing.' But, we do support young people or any citizen's rights to pursue legal recourses if they feel like they've been denied."
