Nearly a decade into Scott Wetherbee’s tenure, Eastern Michigan faces a defining question: Is the athletic department doing enough to compete?
In a world where Eastern Michigan’s in-state rivals are one second from upsetting the winningest team in football college history, Eastern Michigan finds itself losing by 44 to a team that finished 12th in the Big Ten, and unfortunately it’s a long list of disappointing results that Eastern Michigan has grown accustomed to.
Since Eastern Michigan athletic director Scott Wetherbee was hired in 2017 the athletics programs have gone in the wrong direction. The football program has had three winning seasons in his nine year tenure. While the men’s and women’s basketball teams have one winning season each.
In the time since Wetherbee has been a part of Eastern Michigan the football program has been to five bowl games while only winning one, sporting a record of 51-56 during the era as more wins continue to pile on to the ever shrinking win rate. The Eagles haven’t beaten their two state in-rivals in the same season since 2022 and haven’t beaten Toledo since 2021.
The men’s and women’s basketball teams have yet to sniff a NCAA tournament appearance as the football continues to struggle to achieve a winning season and meaningful results with continued losses to both in-state rivals and Toledo highlighting the disappointing resume that Wetherbee and his athletic department continue to tout.
The 2026-27 men’s basketball season will mark the start of Eastern’s third permanent head coach in the last nine years as the team has struggled to find any sort of consistency. After five seasons under Stan Heath, Eastern mutually parted ways with its head coach following a 10-21 season and 4-14 MAC record. Heath's departure makes Billy Donlon the program's 31st head coach, continuing a pattern of turnover that has prevented the program from establishing long-term consistency.
The women’s team is on their second head coach in that time as they too haven’t found the ability to win with Sahar Nussibeh going into her third year at the helm looking to expand on the 11 win season the team had last year as compared to the two win season the Eagles had the year prior.
Under Wetherbee Eastern Michigan has won 20 MAC team championships, but most have come from track and field, cross country and other Olympic sports that were previously established as national competitors rather than the department's most visible revenue-generating programs. So are those championships really enough?
In comparison Western Michigan’s and their athletic director, Dan Bartholomae, have won 37 conference championships and finished first in the MAC Learfield Directors' Cup standings three consecutive times since he took over in 2022. Bartholomae has made it a point to prioritize student-athlete success in the classroom. And while their current football success is reflective of the total history of the program, the Broncos still hold on to the overall athletic success that Eastern continues to blindly search for.
And while Eastern Michigan can measure athletic department growth through the addition of teams such as women’s flag football and lightweight rowing the same cannot be said for the teams that have already been established and with the women’s swim and dive team shutting down after the 2026-27 season its another loss to the ever declining Wetherbee athletic department.
Asking for donations and fundraising can only get you so far as Eastern continues to shop for coaches every couple of years like clockwork. Maybe the problem isn’t with the individual program itself but instead with the leadership and support within the athletic department. The expectations for a slowly dying university should be to serve the students and the students crave an underdog team that they can cheer for and believe in but for now they have to wait as uncertainty and complacency sweep the university.
Women's golf provides the clearest example of what can happen when additional resources are invested into an EMU program. The Eagles made their first NCAA Regional and NCAA Championship appearances in 2025-26 and tied for third nationally. GameAbove's investment in the program has been an important part of that growth, but it also raises a larger question: what could other Eastern programs accomplish with similar resources and support?
With a new president already beginning his tenure and changes taking place across the university, Eastern Michigan has an opportunity to take a hard look at every part of the institution, including athletics.
The question isn't whether Scott Wetherbee has accomplished anything during his nine years at Eastern Michigan. He has. The Eagles have won MAC championships, produced academic success and added programs that have expanded opportunities for student-athletes.
Football remains inconsistent. Men's and women's basketball continue to search for stability. Eastern's most visible programs have struggled to consistently compete at the top of the MAC, while other schools in the conference have demonstrated what sustained investment and departmental support can produce.
After nearly a decade, Eastern Michigan has to decide what it wants its athletic department to be.
If the answer is to compete, invest and give students a program they can rally around, then simply continuing down the same path may not be enough.
Maybe the next change at Eastern Michigan shouldn't be another coach.
Maybe it should start at the top.
