Wren Baker excited by future of Big 12, expansion
In 2023, the Big 12 is going to welcome four new schools, UCF, Cincinnati, Houston, and BYU. That comes just ahead of Texas and Oklahoma leaving the conference. Meanwhile, rumors that the conference wants to expand again are swirling.
West Virginia athletic director Wren Baker opened up about that possibility, saying that he’s excited about the future of the Big 12.
“And I’m excited about that,” Baker said. “You look at having Cincinnati in the league, that’s going to create a great rivalry over time, won’t happen overnight. Then at UCF, we have a lot of alums and donors in Florida. So, that’s gonna give us a chance to connect with them. Another Eastern-based team. I’m excited about the future of the Big 12.”
As Baker explained, these new schools should help West Virginia’s outlook moving forward in the new Big 12. On top of that, the conference is going to be a strong one, even with Oklahoma and Texas moving on to the SEC.
“I think we have a chance to, if you just look at this year at all the different sports, I mean OU and Texas are certainly two of the more storied programs, but if you look at the success across the line at a lot of the sports, they did extraordinarily well. So, I think the future of the Big 12 is very bright and very good for WVU.”
There have also been numerous rumors about the Big 12 potentially expanding. That includes basketball-centric schools, like UConn and Gonzaga, who the league is reportedly interested in. At the same time, despite reports that Commissioner Brett Yormark was on campus, he denied meeting with officials at Memphis.
Wren Baker on the legacy of Bob Huggins
Following his arrest for driving while intoxicated, Bob Huggins resigned as the head coach at West Virginia. Coming just more than a month after he was suspended for using a homophobic slur, Huggins was likely allowed to resign rather than be fired for the sake of his legacy.
After the news, Wren Baker spoke about Bob Huggins and his legacy.
“In the time I spent with Coach Huggins, we never had a cross word. I’ve got immense respect for him. I’ve had a chance to work with two Hall of Famers now, Eddie Sutton and then him. Learned a lot from both of them. He certainly has done a tremendous amount for the University, for the basketball program, for cancer research and a variety of other things. My hope and intention is that on a personal level, I’ll always have a friendship and respect with Coach Huggins. But from an institutional perspective, he’s an important part of our history and we’re going to honor and recognize that in an appropriate way as we move forward,” Baker said.
“The last couple of months is I know not what he wanted to happen. Certainly isn’t something that we wanted to happen. But it is what it is and time has a way of healing all wounds. I think as time goes along, there’ll be more and more focus on all of the positive things that happened here during his time. Certainly, what’s happened the last few weeks will not impact my relationship with him and I don’t think it’ll have much of an impact with the University’s relationship with him.”