In the past week, Wichita State lost its two returning men’s basketball starting players, junior Corey Washington and senior Quincy Ballard, to the transfer portal.
On Tuesday afternoon, WSU’s Athletic Director Kevin Saal sent out a statement asking for an additional $1 million in name, image and likeness donations in order to elevate the standard of the Shockers’ men’s basketball program.
“Analyzing NIL/Revenue Share data for the programs participating in the 2025 NCAA Sweet 16, it is reasonable to conclude that while we’ve witnessed substantial short-term growth in our resources, our current 2025-26 NIL/Revenue Share allocation needs an additional $1 million dollars to elevate overall roster talent/depth and compete at the national level of excellence we’ve all come to expect,” Saal said in the statement.
Saal said that the school’s privately funded NIL/Revenue Share resources have grown by 518% since the beginning of 2023 — enough to compete with schools at the American Athletic Conference level.
However, Saal set the goals higher.
“All of us expect league championships, NCAA Tournaments, Sweet 16’s (and beyond), and our charge is to align resources to meet those expectations,” he said. “Additionally, we maintain a distinct advantage over our peers given we are not raising NIL/Revenue Share resources to support a football program.”
Saal also defended the direction of the program under head coach Paul Mills.
The statement pointed out that Mills ranks third all-time in program history in wins in the first two seasons of a coach’s tenure and cited the team’s non-conference wins total (10), postseason berth and status as one of the best rebounding teams in the conference (WSU ranked second in total rebounds) from last season as positive results.
The transfer portal closes on April 22. The men’s basketball team has six roster spots that are currently unfilled.
