(BOWLING GREEN, Ky.) – Western Kentucky University’s Athletic Director, Todd Stewart, spoke with local media members today. The press conference addressed the athletic programs, new facilities, and WKU’s perspective on the ever-changing national landscape of college athletics.

This article will highlight every question in the press conference and provide context to Stewart’s answers. 

ON LADY TOPPER BASKETBALL NOT PARTICIPATING IN WNIT

“The WNIT is the number three tournament for women’s basketball,” Stewart said. “And historically, if you look at all of our sports, we have never played in the third-best postseason tournament. Not just a women’s basketball thing. Men’s basketball has never played in the CIT or the CBI and across the board. We historically have just not done that.”

“The number two tournament now for women’s basketball [is] the WBIT,” Stewart said. “If we had been offered a bid to the WBIT, we definitely would have accepted that.”

Lady Topper basketball has competed in 20 NCAA Tournaments and appeared in 3 Final Fours, one of those resulting in an NCAA championship game appearance in 1992. The program last appeared in the 2018 NCAA tournament under former head coach, Michelle Clark-Heard.

Stewart added that the decision to decline the WNIT bid was made during the season. He also spoke with Men’s Basketball head coach Hank Plona, deciding to decline bids to the CIT or CBI if offered.

ON LACK OF ESPN+ BROADCASTS FOR WKU BASEBALL

Conference USA requires programs to broadcast every football, men’s basketball, and women’s basketball game that is not in the conference’s TV package, according to Todd Stewart. 

“So after the football, men’s, and women’s basketball games are selected, then we see what we have left and then we make the decisions on how many games we’re going to do with volleyball, soccer, baseball, and softball,” Stewart said.

“The coaches are given the number of games that they have and then they choose the ones,” Stewart said. “In the case of baseball, [head coach] Marc [Rardin] wanted to do primarily conference games. The Kentucky game I know we’re doing also.”

Stewart added that the on-campus production team, WKYU-PBS charges the university over $600,000 yearly to do the broadcasts. WKU ranks in the bottom 25% of the FBS in terms of budget, according to Stewart.

ON WKU BASEBALL’S HISTORIC START TO THE 2025 CAMPAIGN

“Three years ago when our job was open, our program was not in a good place,” Stewart said.

Before Coach Rardin took over WKU Baseball, the program placed last in Conference USA, winning 18 games, and only seven in conference play. Now, the Hilltoppers are off to their best start in program history, sitting at 19-1. 

“Marc never blinked,” Stewart said. “When I was talking to him and shared our vision for baseball and where I hoped that we could go and what the goals were, he embraced the challenges.”

“And I wish I had recorded our conversations because everything that’s happened in our program the two and a half years he’s been the head coach, he said would happen.”

Hilltopper Baseball is now entering national conversations. On the diamond, the Tops rank second in the nation in ERA at 2.31, according to the NCAA. Junior Jack Bennett leads the nation in ERA at 0.00. At the plate, the red and white are batting .335, the sixth-best rate in the country.

ON THE NEW HILLTOPPER FIELDHOUSE AND PRESS BOX CONSTRUCTION

In October of 2023, WKU released plans to build a new press box inside Houchens Industries L.T. Smith Stadium and a new 120,000-square-foot Hilltopper Fieldhouse.

Since 2014, before the press box and fieldhouse, WKU invested over 15 million dollars in facilities.

“The two big things that were missing were the press box … so that was nice to get that updated,” Stewart said. “Then the Hilltopper Fieldhouse, which will be huge, it’ll be a game changer for all of our programs.”

The “tentative time frame” is for the fieldhouse to be completed in September or October of this year, according to Stewart. 

ON COACH PLONA’S FIRST YEAR AT THE HELM OF HILLTOPPER BASKETBALL

WKU Basketball ended the season at 17-15 (8-10, CUSA) and lost in the first round of the CUSA tournament to FIU.

“I think when you evaluate anybody, you have to evaluate them based on what they have, the circumstances they face, and what they did,” Stewart said.

Senior forward Babacar Faye injured his knee during the team’s win over in-state rival Murray State. Without Faye, the Hilltoppers went 10-12 to close the season. Freshman guard Julius Thedford injured his knee against MTSU. 

WKU Basketball entered the season without: Teagan Moore, Terrion Murdix, Fallou Diagne, Cade Stinnett, and Kade Unseld. 

“I have tremendous confidence in Hank,” Stewart said. “I think the way he navigated this year … and the role he had last year, I mean, you talk to Steve Lutz, he would tell you that we would not have had the season we had last year were it not for Hank Plona. So I’m excited to see the roster that he builds for next season and him leading this program moving forward.”

ON THE JUCO RULING AFFECTING PLAYER’S ELIGIBILITY

“Every junior college player whose eligibility would have expired this year now has another year left,” Stewart said. 

Stewart also added that players may not remain at the university after receiving the extra year of eligibility. The athletic director provided his insight into how he believes power conference programs will respond.

“I think that you’re going to see some crazy spending because everybody all of a sudden at those powerful programs has 20 million dollars that they’re going to allocate and none of it’s been allocated yet,” Stewart said.

ON HOW WKU CAN RETAIN & RECRUIT ATHLETES IN THE PORTAL

“I think it’ll largely come down to the economics,” Stewart said.

Stewart shared that he prepared for this when hiring new coaches. Stewart hopes Marc Rardin and Hank Plona’s extensive backgrounds in junior college athletics will help with recruiting players. 

“We’re going to have to uncover some gems that maybe other people aren’t aren’t aware of,” Stewart said.

ON THE LOSS OF BRENT CHUMBLEY TO WKU ATHLETICS

Brent Chumbley, Western Kentucky University Director of Cross Country/Track & Field, passed away unexpectedly on Thursday, January 30th.

“Through adversity, oftentimes the best of people comes through,” Stewart said. “And really the whole program, they’ve just rallied around each other and the players have supported each other and the coaching staff has, too.”

“The Chumbley family will always be in our thoughts, and we’re going to continue to help them in every way that we can,” Stewart said.

ON WKU FOOTBALL HEAD COACH TYSON HELTON’S FOUR-YEAR CONTRACT EXTENSION

“The success that he’s had, other people are noticing he had three different schools contact him about openings that they had this past offseason,” Stewart said.

Stewart cited Helton’s success with roster turnover, conference play, and bowl game appearances as reasons for the extension. 

“This is a massive roster turnover from 2024 to 2025, but in the past, he’s handled all that extremely well and through various methods,” Stewart said.

In six seasons under Coach Helton, WKU has appeared in six bowl games, with a 4-2 record. 

ON WKU’S COMPETITIVENESS WITH NIL

WKU Athletics relies on the traditional NIL deals and the Red Towel Trust collective, according to Stewart. Stewart added he believes WKU is very competitive amongst “peer schools” within the space of NIL.

“It is an arms race out there,” Stewart said. “If we’re only maintaining, we’re falling behind. We’re going to have to adjust. We’re going to have to be aggressive in the initial space and certainly play that game or we’ll lose out.”

Stewart shared his belief that successful athletics programs will have three levels of support: university, individuals in the community, and corporate support.

ON INCREASING FAN ATTENDANCE AT HOME EVENTS

“This is not meant as a criticism of fans,” Stewart said. “ I think we have some great fans. I really do. They’re with us through thick and thin … but to me, a great fan base is one who comes to see you play, when you play, regardless of who you play. I don’t know that that’s who we are right now. I think it’s conditional in a lot of ways.”

“Some of that’s on us, too,” Stewart said. “If we’re only maintaining, we’re falling behind. So we need to look at different ways of doing things, things to be creative, things to engage with students more because they bring energy. We’ll look at anything and everything.”

ON THE POTENTIAL USES FOR THE NEW FIELDHOUSE

Stewart shared that the new fieldhouse will be used quickly, once it is available. He shared hopes to use the space for game day and allow fans to visit the fieldhouse.

“Moving forward, [the fieldhouse will] be a part of game day and football, I think that’ll be a fan interactive area for football game day,” Stewart said. “It would be crazy not to utilize that space, so we’ll use it a lot.”

Stewart also plans to allow local high schools and programs to use the facility.

Hilltopper fans can watch the full press conference by clicking the video attached at the top of this article. Fans can also visit our YouTube page which is linked below.