MORGANTOWN — The wait has now gone from months to just weeks. Aside from the beginning of the women’s soccer season, a historic Big 12 sports year will soon be just days and then hours from starting.
For the first time ever, the league will stretch across three time zones, going nearly coast-to-coast, as Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado are official members.
And so it is time, as we are about to embark into a journey of the unknown here in Morgantown, to have an honest discussion of the future of WVU athletics.
We simply ask one question: If WVU athletics were a stock, would you be a buyer today?
There are any number of reasons to jump on the Mountaineers’ bandwagon, beginning with the football program that has some preseason hope — we’re not ready to call it hype just yet — centered around it not seen since 2018.
Coming off its first bowl win since 2020, the Mountaineers are now picked in the middle of the pack of the Big 12, which is better than being thought of as a bottom-tier team, but leaves room for improvement.
This should have WVU athletic director Wren Baker on high alert, because for all that he has done right in his short tenure at the school, this is not yet an athletics department positioned to be a major player in the Big 12.
It can get there, but there is room for improvement.
If you look at the department as a whole, you see a women’s basketball team making great strides, a baseball team that continues to grow and set attendance records, as well as a men’s soccer team (which does not compete in the Big 12) that has a real shot at becoming a national-championship contender.
You see distance runner Ceili McCabe just competed in the Olympics. You see golf coach Sean Covich doing absolutely amazing things despite a lack of facilities.
You can also see women’s basketball coach Mark Kellogg becoming a hot name for future hires, same goes for men’s soccer coach Dan Stratford.
If Steve Sabins is as good a baseball head coach as he was at recruiting, he too could eventually be whisked away, but the man is just taking over at WVU, so that’s down the road.
And as much as we want to look at football, the men’s basketball program is under the most scrutiny today.
It’s been three years since the Mountaineers have finished in the top half of the Big 12, four since it’s had a 20-win season.
WVU hasn’t seriously contended for a Big 12 men’s hoops title since Jevon Carter was enrolled, and he’s been in the NBA for six seasons for six different teams already.
Darian DeVries has got a lot on his shoulders in his first season as coach in a league where he’ll be asked to battle the likes of Kansas, Arizona, Houston and Baylor on a nightly basis.
Iowa State and Cincinnati are programs on the rise, so this isn’t going to be a forgiving league for a young coach looking to make his mark at his first Power Five school.
It’s important to note here the reason why it’s crucial to be a player in the Big 12. The league is a great avenue to opportunity.
Outside of men’s basketball and baseball (where the ACC is a top dog), the Big 12 is not the national grind you have in the SEC and Big Ten, yet it’s far superior to everything else available.
It gives you a path to riches with a journey that is more suitably paved than what Texas and Oklahoma will now find in the SEC or USC or UCLA in the Big Ten.
If the ACC one day breaks up, the Big 12 can grow in numbers, yet still may not approach the national respect found in the SEC or Big Ten.
Which brings us back to this upcoming football season and just how crucial this season is.
With the expansion of the major conferences and the College Football Playoffs, there is no better time for the football program to take another positive step forward.
DeVries could do the university a solid by giving it some jolt of momentum this hoops season.
The alternative is being a middle-of-the road athletics department as a whole in a conference that will likely never be as super as you know who.
That type of life could still be sound as to WVU’s bottom line financially, but it’s not the reputation the fans would ever settle for.
So, would you buy stock in WVU athletics today? The answer is a solid yes based on potential, but don’t keep your finger too far removed from the sell button.
