Dear Bronco Friends and Family – 

What an historic academic year!  As we reflect on 2024-25, we once again get an opportunity to collectively celebrate what is without question one of the most exceptional displays of comprehensive excellence across our athletic programs.  Guided by our vision to graduate our athletes holistically prepared to pursue their passions in life; make high quality connections with our community; and win championships, WMU once again broke records in all three areas:

•    In the classroom, we saw a record 179 student-athletes receive a 4.0 GPA – almost 1 of every 4 student-athletes!  Our student-athletes finished the year with a 3.38 cumulative GPA.
•    For the third straight year, Bronco student-athletes broke a departmental record for service hours within the community.  Our 6,669 hours ranked us 5th in all of NCAA Division 1 and we placed 1st in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) for the third straight year.
•    We set a new school record with nine programs qualifying for NCAA post-season play, highlighted by our first national championship in Men's Ice Hockey.  Our athletic department once again finished 1st in the MAC in the Learfield Director's Cup Standings, after doing it for the first time in history last academic year.  In addition, we celebrated a national championship for our Dance Program in the Jazz Championship at the College Classic.

We also saw significant growth in other key priority areas of our strategic plan.  We continue to see growth in our efforts to activate our community – both on and off campus.  We celebrated our largest home opening football attendance since 2017; 11 sell-outs at Lawson Arena and attendance growth in almost every ticketed sport.  Between our bowl game and the national championship game in Hockey – we reached nearly 2 Million households across the country.  Our social media channels reached 36.9M people in 2024-25.  In September, we strengthened our brand and student-athlete support by partnering with Rally House to launch a new official online store, which includes a dedicated NIL shop for our student-athletes—generating close to $400,000 in sales to date. There is no question Bronco Athletics is emerging as a national brand.

We celebrated continued investment and growth in our facilities.  We introduced a state of the art Taraflex floor at University Arena for our Volleyball program; we opened the state-of-the-art Bergeron Golf Performance Center; and we are completing turf replacement in both Waldo Stadium and the Donald J Seelye Center.  Finally – we broke ground on both the Kalamazoo Event Center and what is sure to be the best athletic performance and training center in the country for our hockey and basketball programs. 

Finally – our donors and loyal supporters made this another year to remember.  With $8.8M raised in annual giving, the generosity of our donors has sparked so much of the growth outlined above, and our average annual giving numbers since FY22 represent a 256% increase over those from FY16-FY21.

LOOKING AHEAD – HOUSE VS NCAA SETTLEMENT

Many of our efforts this year centered on planning and implementation of expanded student-athlete benefits as permitted by the recent House vs NCAA Settlement.  As I have stated, it is imperative that WMU set the standard within the Mid-American Conference in providing these benefits, which will be a crucial component of our recruiting efforts and our competitive success.  In 2025-26, we will be sharing revenues with select student-athletes in four revenue generating sports.  Additionally, we will expand scholarships in one male sport and five female sports – as permitted by the settlement.  We are excited to move into this new era of intercollegiate athletics and I appreciate the many loyal donors that have supported these efforts.  As this new era begins, I also want to take a moment to thank the Broncos Will Reign NIL Collective – and Bronco Alum Mitch Zajac.  Thanks to Mitch, we set a new standard for student-athlete NIL support which allowed us to retain and recruit the best and brightest.  
These efforts will now shift internally, where our donors who support revenue sharing can enjoy all Bronco Athletic Fund member benefits.

A DESTINATION GROUP OF FIVE PROGRAM
With so many changes within the intercollegiate athletics landscape we will prioritize establishing WMU as a destination program within the Group of Five.  Few Group of Five programs can boast the success we have had in the past two academic years – from the competitive results, to the facility development, to the connection with our community.  For example - the Broncos were 3rd overall in the Learfield Directors' Cup Standings in the Group of Five, and the Broncos emPOWERed student-athlete development program was recognized by the National Association for Collegiate Athletic Directors' as a top 3 program in the nation.  We are on the rise – and with national championship level success the country is recognizing how special this Athletic Department can be.  It will be our priority to leverage this momentum – along with the incredible community and facility support we look forward to in the next two years.  We are so fortunate to have you with us on this journey, and we look forward to the path ahead!