West Virginia athletic director Wren Baker answers questions during a news conference, June 26, 2023, in Morgantown, W.Va. (AP Photo/Kathleen Batten, File)

MORGANTOWN — The truth, according to Wren Baker, the West Virginia University athletic director charged with laying out a path through a landmine-filled field of college athletics finances, is that the new world we all are entering is both dramatic and traumatic but does it have to be catastrophic?

Will there be changes?

Yes.

Will you, the fan, notice them?

Definitely.

Truth is you already are and the effect of revenue sharing with the athletes is already being felt and will be for quite some time as they put the new plan into effect, then adjust it so that the activities remain as addictive to our sports fantasies even as the realities eat away at the structure we had loved for so long.

Conferences and landscapes have changed. It is far from perfect but it is intriguing. Our greatest events are in transition, the football playoffs growing and changing their membership requirements and the basketball tournament known as March Madness, already the most captivating of all events, seems certain to undergo another expansion from 68 teams to … to … to what.

And why?

Because, we hear almost on a daily basis, because revenues have to increase to cover that $20.5 million a year revenue will now be redirected to the student-athletes.

Funny isn’t it, how all we hear about these days is increasing the revenue rather than tightening the belt by cutting expenses. Surely all of us, when we check our checking account balance and find it shrinking, we move to see what costs can be cut.

It works the other way in sports.

And there are changes everywhere, really.

Once upon a time, we spoke of our players as student-athletes, but with these changes to sharing of revenues and them earning NIL money, should we not maybe adjust that to athlete-students.

Baker reacted in a recent conversation to whether or not they really are students any longer.

“Yes,” he answered. “Is the relationship a little different than it used to be? Yes. Is the conversation package a little different? Yeah. It’s unfortunate that the value of an education is not given the same kind of appreciation as it was because I still believe a college degree is valuable; valuable for the way you live your life and valuable for other things.

“At the same time, just because some things change it doesn’t mean everything has to change. These kids are still students. They still have to go to class. They still get in trouble if they miss tutoring sessions. They still have responsibilities studying and are held accountable for that.

“And they still love their institution. It’s just that some of them are here for shorter periods of time.”

But where are we headed? The other day Justin Jackson in The Dominion Post suggested that “trading” athletes might be somewhere in the deck.

If the time comes — and it is a matter of discussion — where they are declared employees, who knows what you will see.

Traded players? Unionization? Paid vacations? The destruction of Title IX in college sports?

Baker isn’t prepared to give a yes or no on it all.

“I do think we will continue to see things change. That list of things you mention, how much of that will change, I don’t know. Part of that comes in the professional leagues as a product of collective bargaining. We don’t have that as a mechanism we can use to solve the riddle of college athletics,” he said.

“Could that happen at some point? It probably could. I think you will see things continually change, but what that means I don’t know.

Take Title IX, which created gender equality in sports.

As they put together their revenue sharing plan, that was a major issue.

“The way we are doing it — and we are doing it on the advice of legal counsel — is the sports that contribute to the revenues we are sharing, whatever percentage of the revenues they are contributing is the percentage they are sharing,” Baker said

“So, we have allocated our rev share on a non-discriminatory basis.”

But only football and men’s basketball produce a profit and the department has always run on that.

Are some non-rev sports threatened? Certainly if they ever approach the idea of belt-tightening that will come into the discussion if not into play.

Right now, Baker says, women’s sports are and non-revs are not being threatened.

“I believe generally most AD’s, presidents, coaches and campus leaders have a strong desire to offer a full complement of sports for women so they can continue with the amazing experience they are getting. If we go down the employment route, it could put sports in jeopardy,” Baker admitted.

“If they are ruled full time employees it would put them into a different category so they would not be subject to the Title IX proportionality, as I understand it,” the AD continued. “That would be a concern, but everyone I talk to says their desire is to do everything we can to protect Olympic sports, to protect women’s sports and to offer the full complement of experiences.”

Recently, in an effort to build revenues, WVU announced a $125 per semester Mountaineer Athletics Addvantage fee for students on the Morgantown campus.

While that doesn’t sound like much, it is.

If 14,000 students go on the Morgantown campus, and the true figure is probably higher than that, and must pay $125 per semester, over two semesters that raises $3.5 million to help ease the burden of $20.5 million in revenue sharing payments.

But is it fair to place such a fee on students, many of whom are not sports fans?

“Here’s what I would say to that. Our fees, relative to peers, have been very, very low. South Carolina has just implemented a fee on their campus that is three times in total the fee ours is,” Baker said. “There’s a lot of schools with Group of 5 programs that are getting a lot of subsidies through student fees or through campus subsidies, which can be a less transparent student fee, but it’s coming from there.

“In our case, both of our two prime athletic venues, students get in free and they get high premium sideline seats. The amount of revenue to forego to give those seats to students in the locations we give them is significant,” Baker continued.

“We try to ensure our athletic program is competitive not only because it’s important to the university but to the state. We try to not give anybody an unfair share of that burden … So the foundation is helping some, the athletic department has sharpened our pencil on both the revenue and expense side to make sure we do what we need to do, but ultimately a student fee came into play.

“I understand the criticism and the only thing I would counter with is I think every kid on this campus benefits because I think the university reputation benefits from successful athletic programs.”

Make no doubt, costs will continue to rise, just as they have throughout our society on all items. Tickets, parking, concessions. In the end, it will find its level.