--West Virginia Athletic Director Wren Baker said that his thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the troopers that were shot in Martinsburg.
--He is very excited about the news of the new volleyball coach. Very rarely does plan A work in coaching searches, but in this instance it did. Baker is very proud of the men's soccer program and the culture that Dan Stratford has built. He just does his job.
--Very excited to go to Charlotte as it happened in the waning moments. He can't wait for Mountaineer nation to show up for the Duke's Mayo Bowl game.
--Women's basketball has a chance to be 11-0 today.
--Baker is generally supportive on some type of regulator for transfers. The restriction on more than one time transfers isn't there to restrict options, it's to help students graduate. The biggest misstep is the subjective waiver process for the waivers. Baker said they'll see what happens in court but the hope would not to be a subjective process involved because it forces the student athlete to make a decision whether they're going to be eligible or not. They need to know criteria on whether they'd be eligible or not. But the reason the NCAA made the waivers difficult to get in the first place is because the NCAA membership asked for it.
--The general public and media, you see the tip off it on game day but Baker gets to see the entire iceberg when it comes to the basketball program. Baker gets the focus from the public on wins and loses but he gets a 360 view of everything that goes on in the program. His goal is to do a thorough review of each program at the end of the year. In terms of men's basketball they've only played one third of the games and Eilert will have his full support this season and at the end of the season they'll make a determination.
--Baker said it's certainly been a crazy first year. He's lost some weight but part of that is everytime he goes to eat something crazy happens and his phone rings. He looks at the positive aspects of things and the challenges they've gone through has allowed him to build more meaningful relationships. He is grateful and his family has loved being here. Culturally this is very similar to where he grew up in rural Oklahoma, so he's felt that he's really gotten to know the people here.
--Baker hasn't gotten as far on some of the planning and strategic initiatives but they have made some progress. They have a staff organization that they know internally but they will announce that after the first of the year. Given all of the challenges, they've made really good progress.
--In 20 years, Jen Greeny is the best resume that he has hired. There's been a lot of high level programs that have tried to get her interested in their job, she was at her alma mater and played there and is from there. They had a process of recruiting her and other candidates but it was always if they could get her it was a no-brainer and they were able to get that done. It says a lot for West Virginia and the new Big 12 with how they're positioned and really the sport of volleyball. It's a sport they wanted to invest. Baker always uses a search firm and he takes the search committee and they're assigned each conferences and look at mid-major successful coaches they're interested in and power conferences high level assistants and for some reason power five head coaches on the list. They do that independent of the search firms to cross reference. The search firm can get really good opinions. They had coach Greeny on their list because it might have been time to reach out and the search firm did as well and it went from there.
--The RFP is really for the broad facilities master plan. Look at the entire footprint and they'll interview the coaches, athletes, administrative staff, fans and colleagues on campus. It would rather be more than less so they put out the big vision out there and who they want to be when they grow up and pretend money is not an object. You don't want to spend the cost to get all the drawings all the things with it, so it will be basic renderings. The one thing they do want to run out a little further is Puskar Stadium. They can raise revenues here, but premium seating is a hindrance to raise their budgets to where they need to be. He doesn't have a plan yet, but the facility master planning process will help with that process.
--Baker hasn't had a chance to speak with coach Huggins since shortly after he slowed down. There has been nothing new with him so it's been fairly resolved. He has a lot of respect and appreciation for what coach did here and there probably will be a time and place where he can catch up with him. There's been no additional payments.
--If they were putting this together today there is no way they'd do it the way it's being done in college sports. In theory, he would like a football affiliated conference and then something by everything else. District, regional and area makes that makes so much sense. But conferences are entrenched in a power structure and kings won't give up some of their kingdom without a fight so people would have to put things aside and come together to make it make sense. In theory it's a great idea, but the practicality of that is difficult.
--The biggest difference with ESPN+ is anytime you add schools there will be less linear opportunities for each school.
--Baker thinks revenue sharing with student athletes is going to happen in some capacity. He believes it's fair and he's supportive but he doesn't know how you do that with the regulations right now.
--Both basketball coaches have done a good job but have been presented completely different situations. Coach Kellogg came into a situation where its the third coach in three years and there was a lot of emotions in that room so he had to come in and build trust and equity. He's done a good job of that. Coach Eilert is not totally different, but different. He always knew that the challenge was great and he said he almost felt guilty for putting him in this position. It's always a big coaching job to take that many new people that haven't played together with pro aspirations to be a team. Then you take all the other things that have occurred and it's certainly been challenging.
--Baker is confident with where they're positioning is they're the gate way to the Northeast. They may only have less than $2 million, but they are West Virginia's Dallas Cowboys. Of the 1.8 million, 1.6 million are following every possession. When you look at the valuations and viewerships they are always in the mix and top half. Because of the population not being great, it shows the power of the brand. They have a broad reach and he's very confident in his positioning from a conference perspective. This program means too much for the state and the people here. The people won't let it not get what it needs to get. He isn't worried about Charlie Baker's proposal because they will figure it out and West Virginians aren't going to allow them not to compete at the highest level. Whatever the highest level of college athletics are they will be participating.
--Baker was coming in last year getting a lot of questions about football and it's hard when you don't know or aren't here. He spent a lot of time around the program and he knows most of the student athletes and been to a ton of practices and been in the locker room for pre-game, halftime and post-game. As an athletic director you visit with a lot of coaches and their parents and when he says that he would want his kid to play for that coach and he can look at football and mean it. They got grades a day or two ago and football was right at 3.0 for the whole team. Lot of great things that are happening but the general public is the tip of the iceberg which is the 12 Saturdays. It was rewarding to see them and he said that he would be surprised if they didn't prove a lot of people wrong in August and to see it play out was positive. They are doing a better job in retention and recruitment. The growth of Country Roads Trust is a big benefit. They have doubled their membership in just a couple months.
--Baker is not at all excited about the mayo bath. He threw a number out there he didn't think they could get to that but they did and you can't underestimate the passion of West Virginians
--Eventually, the role that collectives play will go to institutions and they aren't against that. Country Roads Trust is well supported. They do what they say they're going to do and committed to compliance. He hasn't seen any cannibalization of their annual giving. The way it functions they're performing in the top 3 or 4 percent. He wouldn't be surprised if it's allowed to come in house. They can't afford to have that cannibalization but NIL opportunities are important.
--Baker preferred more regionalized scheduling than what they ended up with in the Big 12. There is a hybrid regionalized approach but some of the new schools greatly desired to play everybody. That wasn't as important to him as he wanted to play Cincinnati every year. There is a regional component and you will play more often than the others and for example in four years they have only two trips to the west once. They want to get a bye close to one of them. Everybody had to give a little bit and overall he felt it was a good thing.
--Baker doesn't get to see the Country Roads Trust's financials or see their deals. He knows from afar it is growing and he expects that it's competitive. There's not disclosure so nobody knows what anybody is doing but he is doing what he can to help them grow.
--Academic year they're so busy and distracted, Baker fully expects to extend the Backyard Brawl in both major sports. Everytime he sees Pittsburgh athletic director Heather Lyke they talk about it but now they need to sit down and iron it out. He has every reason to believe it will be done.
--The more premium experiences they can create that's where they can squeeze more money. Baker thinks they have some sports that can be competitive with not more of an investment. In those two major sports the assistants pool overall is something they need to continue to look at.
--Generally, Baker isn't a huge fan of coach in waiting. In a 24-hour period that was as much as he's ever given on a position he felt strongly about with Steve Sabins taking over for Randy Mazey. He's seen too many of those not go well and he's not a huge fan of it. They have such a good relationship and they came to the table and wanted to make it work. Sabins had a power five job offer in hand, but they all came together to make it work.
--He is very excited about the news of the new volleyball coach. Very rarely does plan A work in coaching searches, but in this instance it did. Baker is very proud of the men's soccer program and the culture that Dan Stratford has built. He just does his job.
--Very excited to go to Charlotte as it happened in the waning moments. He can't wait for Mountaineer nation to show up for the Duke's Mayo Bowl game.
--Women's basketball has a chance to be 11-0 today.
--Baker is generally supportive on some type of regulator for transfers. The restriction on more than one time transfers isn't there to restrict options, it's to help students graduate. The biggest misstep is the subjective waiver process for the waivers. Baker said they'll see what happens in court but the hope would not to be a subjective process involved because it forces the student athlete to make a decision whether they're going to be eligible or not. They need to know criteria on whether they'd be eligible or not. But the reason the NCAA made the waivers difficult to get in the first place is because the NCAA membership asked for it.
--The general public and media, you see the tip off it on game day but Baker gets to see the entire iceberg when it comes to the basketball program. Baker gets the focus from the public on wins and loses but he gets a 360 view of everything that goes on in the program. His goal is to do a thorough review of each program at the end of the year. In terms of men's basketball they've only played one third of the games and Eilert will have his full support this season and at the end of the season they'll make a determination.
--Baker said it's certainly been a crazy first year. He's lost some weight but part of that is everytime he goes to eat something crazy happens and his phone rings. He looks at the positive aspects of things and the challenges they've gone through has allowed him to build more meaningful relationships. He is grateful and his family has loved being here. Culturally this is very similar to where he grew up in rural Oklahoma, so he's felt that he's really gotten to know the people here.
--Baker hasn't gotten as far on some of the planning and strategic initiatives but they have made some progress. They have a staff organization that they know internally but they will announce that after the first of the year. Given all of the challenges, they've made really good progress.
--In 20 years, Jen Greeny is the best resume that he has hired. There's been a lot of high level programs that have tried to get her interested in their job, she was at her alma mater and played there and is from there. They had a process of recruiting her and other candidates but it was always if they could get her it was a no-brainer and they were able to get that done. It says a lot for West Virginia and the new Big 12 with how they're positioned and really the sport of volleyball. It's a sport they wanted to invest. Baker always uses a search firm and he takes the search committee and they're assigned each conferences and look at mid-major successful coaches they're interested in and power conferences high level assistants and for some reason power five head coaches on the list. They do that independent of the search firms to cross reference. The search firm can get really good opinions. They had coach Greeny on their list because it might have been time to reach out and the search firm did as well and it went from there.
--The RFP is really for the broad facilities master plan. Look at the entire footprint and they'll interview the coaches, athletes, administrative staff, fans and colleagues on campus. It would rather be more than less so they put out the big vision out there and who they want to be when they grow up and pretend money is not an object. You don't want to spend the cost to get all the drawings all the things with it, so it will be basic renderings. The one thing they do want to run out a little further is Puskar Stadium. They can raise revenues here, but premium seating is a hindrance to raise their budgets to where they need to be. He doesn't have a plan yet, but the facility master planning process will help with that process.
--Baker hasn't had a chance to speak with coach Huggins since shortly after he slowed down. There has been nothing new with him so it's been fairly resolved. He has a lot of respect and appreciation for what coach did here and there probably will be a time and place where he can catch up with him. There's been no additional payments.
--If they were putting this together today there is no way they'd do it the way it's being done in college sports. In theory, he would like a football affiliated conference and then something by everything else. District, regional and area makes that makes so much sense. But conferences are entrenched in a power structure and kings won't give up some of their kingdom without a fight so people would have to put things aside and come together to make it make sense. In theory it's a great idea, but the practicality of that is difficult.
--The biggest difference with ESPN+ is anytime you add schools there will be less linear opportunities for each school.
--Baker thinks revenue sharing with student athletes is going to happen in some capacity. He believes it's fair and he's supportive but he doesn't know how you do that with the regulations right now.
--Both basketball coaches have done a good job but have been presented completely different situations. Coach Kellogg came into a situation where its the third coach in three years and there was a lot of emotions in that room so he had to come in and build trust and equity. He's done a good job of that. Coach Eilert is not totally different, but different. He always knew that the challenge was great and he said he almost felt guilty for putting him in this position. It's always a big coaching job to take that many new people that haven't played together with pro aspirations to be a team. Then you take all the other things that have occurred and it's certainly been challenging.
--Baker is confident with where they're positioning is they're the gate way to the Northeast. They may only have less than $2 million, but they are West Virginia's Dallas Cowboys. Of the 1.8 million, 1.6 million are following every possession. When you look at the valuations and viewerships they are always in the mix and top half. Because of the population not being great, it shows the power of the brand. They have a broad reach and he's very confident in his positioning from a conference perspective. This program means too much for the state and the people here. The people won't let it not get what it needs to get. He isn't worried about Charlie Baker's proposal because they will figure it out and West Virginians aren't going to allow them not to compete at the highest level. Whatever the highest level of college athletics are they will be participating.
--Baker was coming in last year getting a lot of questions about football and it's hard when you don't know or aren't here. He spent a lot of time around the program and he knows most of the student athletes and been to a ton of practices and been in the locker room for pre-game, halftime and post-game. As an athletic director you visit with a lot of coaches and their parents and when he says that he would want his kid to play for that coach and he can look at football and mean it. They got grades a day or two ago and football was right at 3.0 for the whole team. Lot of great things that are happening but the general public is the tip of the iceberg which is the 12 Saturdays. It was rewarding to see them and he said that he would be surprised if they didn't prove a lot of people wrong in August and to see it play out was positive. They are doing a better job in retention and recruitment. The growth of Country Roads Trust is a big benefit. They have doubled their membership in just a couple months.
--Baker is not at all excited about the mayo bath. He threw a number out there he didn't think they could get to that but they did and you can't underestimate the passion of West Virginians
--Eventually, the role that collectives play will go to institutions and they aren't against that. Country Roads Trust is well supported. They do what they say they're going to do and committed to compliance. He hasn't seen any cannibalization of their annual giving. The way it functions they're performing in the top 3 or 4 percent. He wouldn't be surprised if it's allowed to come in house. They can't afford to have that cannibalization but NIL opportunities are important.
--Baker preferred more regionalized scheduling than what they ended up with in the Big 12. There is a hybrid regionalized approach but some of the new schools greatly desired to play everybody. That wasn't as important to him as he wanted to play Cincinnati every year. There is a regional component and you will play more often than the others and for example in four years they have only two trips to the west once. They want to get a bye close to one of them. Everybody had to give a little bit and overall he felt it was a good thing.
--Baker doesn't get to see the Country Roads Trust's financials or see their deals. He knows from afar it is growing and he expects that it's competitive. There's not disclosure so nobody knows what anybody is doing but he is doing what he can to help them grow.
--Academic year they're so busy and distracted, Baker fully expects to extend the Backyard Brawl in both major sports. Everytime he sees Pittsburgh athletic director Heather Lyke they talk about it but now they need to sit down and iron it out. He has every reason to believe it will be done.
--The more premium experiences they can create that's where they can squeeze more money. Baker thinks they have some sports that can be competitive with not more of an investment. In those two major sports the assistants pool overall is something they need to continue to look at.
--Generally, Baker isn't a huge fan of coach in waiting. In a 24-hour period that was as much as he's ever given on a position he felt strongly about with Steve Sabins taking over for Randy Mazey. He's seen too many of those not go well and he's not a huge fan of it. They have such a good relationship and they came to the table and wanted to make it work. Sabins had a power five job offer in hand, but they all came together to make it work.
