MORGANTOWN — If you were to think of it as a mathematical equation, when it comes to the WVU baseball program, the answer is already there and obvious.
It came in the form of Paul Schoenfeld’s dramatic go-ahead home run against Kentucky, the thousands of fans who filled Randy’s Ridge daily behind Kendrick Family Ballpark for the regional and super regional games, as well as West Virginia’s run to college baseball’s Final Four in the College World Series.
The momentum around the Mountaineers is at an all-time high, bringing with it a craving to seize that momentum and point it in a direction where it can happen over and over rather than just a one-time memory.
Or as WVU athletic director Wren Baker said, “I do think everybody’s appetite will be much stronger to do something.”
That “something” is the unknown part of the equation. It’s definitely a gray area, because it becomes a question of value and generating revenue for something that historically has created neither.
According to WVU’s athletic department’s financial report for the 2025 fiscal year – that covers the Mountaineers’ 44-win season and a Big 12 regular season championship – the baseball team reported a loss of $3.26 million. In the 2024 financial report, WVU baseball lost $2.15 million.
The new heights the program reached this season, the financial gain or loss from that won’t be reported until the summer of 2027.
Here’s the other factor that comes with baseball growth: New recruiting doors are opening for WVU head coach Steve Sabins. What was once a program that thrived on taking the 32nd-ranked high school prospect out of Pennsylvania and developing him into J.J. Wetherholt now has opportunities to reach out to prospects higher up on the food chain.
“That’s fair to say,” Sabins said by text message. “Some new folks are certainly interested in our school.”
When those new doors open, it brings with it – you guessed it – a need for more availability to NIL funding. Recruiting that 32nd-ranked kid out of Pennsylvania is one thing. Going after prospects who are already projecting to be the next Wetherholt out of high school is a whole other deal.
“Finances continue to matter more and more every year,” Sabins continued. “NIL continues to matter more every year. We have always fought for the best guys and we’re probably slowly continuing to be in that conversation more and more with the best recruits in the country.”
When it comes to making the attempt to capitalize on WVU’s baseball success, Baker and the WVU athletic department are now faced with the ultimate fork in the road.
First, there is the reality of how much exposure WVU’s run to the World Series actually meant for the school.
There’s the visibility part. Schoenfeld’s home run against Kentucky was televised on a national stage by ESPN2. Millions saw the moment and then posted it and reposted it on social media. WVU players lining up to sing “Take Me Home Country Roads” was another viral moment that brought additional exposure to the school.
How much exposure?
“The school itself, the visibility you pick up, it will probably take a few days to aggregate all of the viewership and impressions and mentions, but it will be well north of 50 million,” Baker predicted. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s closer to 100 million. It’s a big boom to the institution and the athletic department, but also to the state. I don’t think there’s any question that there will be people who visit West Virginia just because of the impression that these kids made on them.”
There is also the need to be financially responsible.
It’s easy for us to say, “Expand the baseball stadium” and “Give Sabins what he wants,” but we probably don’t see that fork in the road Baker likely does.
Do you push the donors for more NIL funding for baseball? What if that meant it coming at a cost for football or men’s basketball NIL funding?
Do you throw money into expanding the stadium, knowing full well that the state’s geography will likely never allow for WVU to schedule a lot of home games in February and March? It may make sense when those regional and super regional opportunities come around again, but there are still four months of the season to consider before the NCAA tournament begins.
And then there is the overall fact that college baseball may never amount to anything more than a break-even sport. WVU isn’t the only school that reports financial losses in the sport. The top names from the SEC – take LSU for example – they lose money, too.
“There are some schools who make a little money or break even,” Baker said. “It’s tough, unless you’ve got a ton of premium (seating) and it’s sold out or you’ve got a super large venue. I do think we can continue to grow revenue. We can continue to invest. It’s not a zero-sum game for us. There are reasons why we do it, and what people have witnessed this year is one of the reasons why we do it.
“I expect we’ll be able to parlay the momentum in a variety of ways and build on it. That’s what you’re trying to do is stack building blocks on top of one another.”
Expand Kendrick Family Ballpark and they will come? Maybe. Just maybe the sport of college baseball at WVU will continue to grow at such a rapid pace to the point where even a snowy day in February can’t keep 4,000 fans away.
Goodness, that would truly be something special.
Would you be willing to bet millions out of your own bank account that is going to happen?
The issue is what’s in the right hand ultimately affects what you have in the left. Sabins would very likely take the program to a completely higher level if the stadium was renovated and he had more NIL money to play with.
To do that requires a giant leap of faith and the ultimate question of whether there is enough value to take that leap of faith.
For Baker, it won’t exactly be a leap of faith, but rather a steady process. He admits he’s not in favor of messing too much with the standing-room only hill that sits behind the visitor’s dugout. Incorporating a seating area on Randy’s Ridge to where the school could charge for admission, maybe that’s an idea.
“We’re going to look at a variety of projects and some of them we have already been in talks with architects,” Baker said. “We don’t have a ton of premium seating. I think it will be a balance of how can we invest and grow revenue here and also are there areas where we can increase capacity? The county owns the ballpark and there are two tenants (WVU and the West Virginia Black Bears) and we’re one of the two. There are lots of discussions to be had on how you go about funding it.
“Hopefully we can all sit down and say, ‘Hey, what are some reasonable projects we can tackle?’ ”
