Amid swirling NCAA news, Country Roads Trust COO Ford addresses collective’s future

If you gave up trying to understand the swirling around NCAA athletics and revenue sharing, I don’t blame you.
One, it’s mindblowing. In a settlement of antitrust lawsuits, most notably House v. NCAA, the power conferences approved to pay roughly $2.8 billion to current and former athletes, from back to 2016, for the next 10 years. The athletes claimed they lost potential NIL (name, image and likeness) revenue. The current proposal also creates a spending cap of roughly no more than $22 million annually for each university — like salary caps used by professional leagues — starting in the 2025-26 season.
Also, the Division I Council unanimously adopted a proposal that allows schools to provide assistance in supporting NIL activities for student-athletes who disclose NIL arrangements, effective Aug. 1. Under the new rule member schools would be able to increase NIL-related support for student-athletes, including identifying NIL opportunities and facilitating deals between student-athletes and third parties.
My question – and one that’s been put to me a bunch – is where does that leave what I call “America’s Collective” – WVU’s Country Roads Trust?
On Tuesday, I spoke to the collective’s GM and COO Stephen Ford.
To say that Ford and his staff have been heroes to WVU athletics and Mountaineer fans through some trying times (see men’s basketball) would be an understatement. The collective stood tall through those rough patches.
Yet what now?
“We’re paying attention closely to what’s going on around the country,” Ford said. “We don’t know what all is going to come about – we still need clarification — but we do know our relationship with WVU athletics has become stronger. We’ll work even closer as we move through this. You’re already seeing schools start to take the leap into merging with their athletic departments one way or another.”
In an interview with WV News’ Bob Hertzel, Mountaineer athletic director Wren Baker pointed out the anti-trust settlement has not received final court approval but that it seems “NIL will be more true organic NIL based on an athlete’s actual worth.”
“We will need to work very hard with Country Roads Trust to chart a course together on how we can most benefit our student-athletes,” Baker told Hertzel. “I don’t know how that will fit together because I don’t yet know the parameters in which we will be working, but I do know we have a close relationship with Country Roads Trust.
“I talk to their leadership and their board regularly. We share notes. We do everything allowed within the rules to assist each other. Once we know the rules of engagement, we will sit down and work together to move us forward.”
The last sentence was key, especially the part where they’ll “work together to move us forward.” It appears Country Roads Trust, somehow, some way, is here to stay.
“I think we want to connect our athletes with supporters of WVU in a more streamlined, thoughtful way,” Ford said. “With us being separate from the university, it’s hard for individuals, donors, sponsors to differentiate between athletics and NIL giving… We have the same goals; we want to bring it all together.”
I asked Ford if Baker’s word made him feel comfortable, secure, about Country Roads Trust.
“I think (a partnership) would put everybody in a better position, I truly do,” Ford said. “I think it would put our programs, athletics, university and the Trust in a much better position. Not that we’ve been working against each other, but then we’d be working lockstep together. We just have to find out what the rules of the game are.”

He paused.

“The space is changing; it’s always changing; we all know that,” Ford said. “We have to keep navigating together. We have to work closely on our short- and long-term goals. But I do think it would benefit West Virginia as a whole when and if those steps are made and we’re truly working together as one.”

I asked Ford’s vision of how the setup would work.

“It’s no different than the (Mountaineer Athletic Club) or (multimedia rights holder) Learfield,” Ford said. “We’ve built up a brand, right? We built a staff to operate on our own. We’d just be another pod of giving for athletics.”

In case you’re wondering, Country Roads Trust is coming off another successful Million Dollar May fundraising drive and school calendar year of work.

“We did really well this past year,” Ford said. “We did more than double the previous year. Obviously, every month or day or year the cost of business goes up, so we have to continue to bring in more revenue, like any business. Our goal is always to do better than the year before.

“Winning in football really helped us. The way (coach) Neal (Brown) has adapted to NIL has been incredibly beneficial to us. His internal team loves working together and navigating everything, especially with the changes. It’s made everything a lot easier on us.”

Ford said his staff’s focus now is the upcoming football kickoff dinner with Boston Celtics NBA champion coach Joe Mazzulla and country musician Charles Wesley Godwin featured.

“It’s going to be a fun night,” Ford said. “If there’s a business or individuals that want to get involved, it’s a can’t-miss night. Anyone at the baseball dinner will tell you how much fun it is.”

Meanwhile, Ford and Country Roads Trust will continue to swirl with the rest of college athletics.

“Right now, it’s business as usual but we’re keeping our ears to the ground and paying attention to what’s going on around the country,” Ford said. “We’ve got a big football season coming up and that’s our focus right now, getting off on the right foot against Penn State and making sure athletics is well-prepared for all these changes.”

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Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.