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Baker Says School Will Max Out Student-Athlete Revenue- Sharing. Does WVU Have The Purse To Compete?

West Virginia's Athletic Director Wren Baker, left, introduces new West Virginia football coach Rich Rodriguez during an NCAA college football news conference Friday, Dec. 13, 2024, in Morgantown, W.Va. (Benjamin Powell/The Dominion-Post via AP)

MORGANTOWN — Today we are going to ask one basic question about West Virginia’s athletic future:

Can the Mountaineers be a meaningful participant in what college athletics have become in today’s money-mad environment of big-time sports?

Two things lead us to pose this question. The first is an article written on CNBC this past week which ranked the value of the top 75 athletic departments in America. The second is a comment WVU’s athletic director Wren Baker made recently regarding what the Mountaineers are up against.

Let us begin with Baker’s comment as we move forward toward revenue sharing with the athletes next year. Power 4 schools will be allowed to pay up to 22% of their average revenue to student-athletes and Baker says WVU will be in for the max.

Sounds good, but it isn’t easy.

“If you look at where we’re at, we’re kind of in that 10-11-12 range (in the Big 12) in most of those categories,” Baker said. “But our expectation as a fanbase, and I’m not saying this isn’t fair, is to be in that top third of the league.”

The question is, can that be pulled off? That brings us to what WVU is competing against, laid out in the CNBC article.

WVU is ranked 60th of the top 75 schools in the valuation of its athletic department with a $403 million valuation on its program.

This is, probably, surprisingly high to most, but believe it or not, it isn’t.

This is what CNBC had to say about the top schools:

Ohio State University is the most valuable athletic program, worth an estimated $1.32 billion. The Buckeyes had $280 million in revenue in 2023, the most of any school. Other factors that helped propel the Buckeyes to the top of the rankings are an alumni base of over 600,000, a fan base of more than 11 million, boosters that donated nearly $60 million last year, and a football team that routinely has attendance of over 100,000 at its games.

It isn’t surprising that the top of the list is dominated by SEC and Big Ten schools — due largely to each conference’s massive media rights deals.

In aggregate, the SEC is worth roughly $13.3 billion, an average of about $832 million per school; followed by the Big Ten at about $13.2 billion, an average of roughly $734 million per school; the ACC at roughly $10 billion, or about $558 million per school; and the Big 12, at roughly $6.7 billion, or about $420 million per school.

That would put WVU and its $403 million average valuation slightly beneath the league average.

When you concede that the other three Power 4 conferences all are above the Big 12 and the SEC and Big Ten far above it, WVU is in a conference in which it can succeed.

Would it be fair to ask WVU, on a daily basis, to compete with Ohio State, Michigan, Texas, Texas A&M, Alabama or Notre Dame when their athletic departments when those athletic departments all had yearly incomes of twice and more than twice WVU’s $106 million during the last year?

In the Big 12, though, especially since Texas and Oklahoma left to join the SEC, where they belong due to their financial standing, they have a chance to compete … but it isn’t going to be easy.

Let’s just look at the Big 12’s ranking among the top 75 schools in value and their athletic revenue:

School, ranking, valuation, income

Texas Tech, No. 33, $619M, $147M

Kansas, No. 37, $553M, $128M

TCU, No. 39, $542M, $149M

Arizona, No. 41, $532M, $143M

Baylor, No. 44, $513M, $137M

Oklahoma State, No. 46, $500M, $122M

Iowa State, No. 48, $492M, $116M

Colorado, No. 55, $470M, $127M

Utah, No. 56, $468M, $126M

Kansas State, No. 57, $444M, $102M

WVU, No. 60, $403M, $106M

BYU, No. 64, $357M, $106M

Arizona State, No. 68, $279M, $115M

Cincinnati, No. 69, $216M, $87M

UCF, No. 70, $181M, $85M

This may give you an idea of why you have seen prices soar on so many items and why it seems that at least once a week you are receiving an email or an ad asking for either ticket purchases or donations.

The truth is that if you are going to swim with the big fish of college athletics, you better be ready to swim in the deepest water.

Things are just beginning to change. Make no doubt that it will not be long before you see a corporate name on the Coliseum, ads on the court and on player uniforms and more pay-to-view TV.

Plans are well underway and may be announced soon that WVU will increase its luxury box situation at both the stadium and the Coliseum for high-priced donors and boosters, for this is the way of the world.

According to a Stub Hub survey last August, the average ticket for a football game in the Big 12 ran from a high average of $147 for Colorado to a low of $17 at Arizona State, which wound up the conference champion.

West Virginia’s average of $69 per ticket was the fifth-most expensive in the 16-team conference, and one can only expect that price to increase when they put in the expanded suites.

Three weeks ago, speaking on MetroNews “Talkline”, Baker summed up WVU’s situation this way:

“It puts us in the best possible scenario that we’ve been in for a long time to be able to compete,” Baker said. “Our fans are supporters. Businesses have been tremendous. I’ve been here for two years, but it’s been over three academic years.

“When you look at our overall NIL, we’ve seen that budget pretty much double three consecutive years. NIL-wise, we were 11th or 12th in terms of the Big 12. It’s not public information, but that’s from calling around and from what I can gather.”

WVU’s revenue share figures to finalize out between $16 million and $20 million.

“One thing that the new cap establishes is a ceiling, and there’s a reporting structure where you have to report what you’re doing. I believe that’s going to equalize the playing field much more than it’s been the past couple of years.” Baker said.

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