Virginia Tech has proposed to add $ 229 million to its athletic budget in the next four years to help position the Hokies to compete with the best programs at the ACC, a crucial moment with the hiring of a new soccer coach that is imminent.
The school visitors will hold a virtual meeting on September 30 to consider the adjustment. In the materials published on the website of the Board of Visitors, Virginia Tech is asking for $ 47.1 million for 2026-27, which raises the total budget of the Athletics Department at $ 190.1 million. That number would increase to $ 212.1 million by 2029-30.
Virginia Tech faces a crossroads with her future, particularly in football. The Hokies fired coach Brent Pry last week after the team began 0-3, and have not competed for an ACC championship since 2016. During a presentation to the Visitors Board last month, the director of Athletics Whit Babcock pointed out how behind Virginia Tech is compared financially with its counterparts Acc.
His current $ 122 million athletics budget occupies the number 14 at the ACC, and Babcock said that number should approach $ 200 million annually. The proposal that the Board will consider reflecting that amount. Babcock told the Board at that time: “We cannot remain proud to do more with less.”
Regarding football financing, its current budget trails of $ 41 million behind Clemsson ($ 67.8 million), Florida State ($ 61.1 million) and North Carolina ($ 48 million) among the public schools of ACC. Although the materials published on Monday do not include how much more football they will get as part of the general increase in the budget, Babcock said during the meeting of the Board last month that football will need at least $ 13.5 million.
This was before Virginia Tech made the transfer to Fire Pry, who was winning $ 4.8 million annually, which took the ninth place at the conference. Virginia Tech Trails Clemsson, Florida State and others in their training salary group and support personnel between key areas. Part of what Babcock presented last month included a “modernized structure built for success” to put more online football with the NFL model than other schools are now using.
To achieve the objective of $ 229 million, the school is looking to raise $ 120 million in new funds. The institutional support and financing of the bridge will constitute most of the remaining $ 109 million.
In a statement issued through the Athletics Department on Monday, Virginia Tech said:
“The intercollegial athletics panorama throughout the country has evolved dramatically during the past year. The gap between top -level programs and all other programs has been expanded. Without additional investment, the university and the region decrease the risk of decreasing profits. Potential losses for existing university revenues such as media rights, the sale of tickets and sponsorships, for example, they probably have a negative impact. In non -restart sports, the value of the brand and the value of a student and the media.
