Athletic director Whit Babcock is set to speak on the future of Virginia Tech athletics at the upcoming Board of Visitors meeting on Monday, Aug. 18.
Doug Bowman of 247Sports posted an extremely detailed thread on social media that broke down Babcock’s presentation, which is a 72-slide PowerPoint. The slides are public documents were previously available here (and originally ran from page 774 to 845). However, Babcock’s portion was removed from the 899-slide PowerPoint on Sunday night. Instead, click here to view a saved PDF of Babcock’s presentation.
Babcock, who has been the Hokies’ AD since January 2014, broke things down into four major points of discussion:
- The economics and changing elements of college sports
- New ACC revenue distribution model resulting from the settlement with Clemson and Florida State
- Virginia Tech athletics budget and resources: peer analysis
- Strategic investment opportunities; investments to WIN
He described the new era of college athletics as a “critical moment in time” and posed three questions to the Board of Visitors before getting into the details:
- How important are athletics at Virginia Tech?
- Where does the Board of Visitors want Virginia Tech to be?
- How can the Hokies “evolve and modernize” to thrive in this new era?
Here’s a summary of Babcock’s presentation, highlighting important topics and breaking down figures:
The Economics And Changing Elements Of College Sports
One of the first things Babcock did was outline how the Hokies plan to fund the $20.5 million figure for revenue sharing, which began on July 1 after the House vs. NCAA settlement was passed in June. Over $10 million will come from an increase in student fees.
He also shared a 10-year outlook on revenue sharing numbers while noting it will be recalculated every three years. The projection shows that in a decade, the cap increases to a maximum of nearly $30 million.
The revenue gap in the Power Four conferences — the Big Ten and SEC to the ACC and Big 12 — is a constant talking point, and Babcock broke down numbers, citing USA Today.
The ACC is third on the list with $711 million in the 2024 fiscal year, equating to $44.8 million per school. For comparison, the Big Ten reeled in $928 million, good for $62.3 million per school, while the SEC was at $880 million and $52.5 million. The Big 12 lags behind the ACC at $494 million, meaning $39.8 million per school.
Also included were estimated distributions for the 2025 fiscal year. The Big Ten and SEC fall between $65 and $80 million. Meanwhile, the ACC is between $35 and $65 million. It has a wider variance per school due to the recent settlement with Clemson and Florida State and the new revenue distribution model.
College Football Playoff revenue is also included in the slide. CFP expansion has been a hot topic recently, and Sportico numbers project the SEC and Big Ten will share $21 million to each school beginning in 2026-27 (when expansion would take effect). For comparison, the ACC is at $13 million — which won’t be distributed evenly — while the Big 12 and Notre Dame are at $12 million.
Babcock outlined the projected annual distribution per Power Four institutions over the next decade, showing the SEC and Big Ten pulling away and the Big 12 eventually catching the ACC.
“While conference distributions are continuing to climb, budgetary stressors continue to emerge with increasing coaching salaries, donor fatigue, and most notably, the impacts of the House settlement,” Babcock wrote.
He broke down four future college football realignment scenarios, too, where schools will either be in or out when the dust settles:
- Bifurcation: Top four (SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC) and then everyone else.
- Trifurcation: Top two (SEC, Big Ten), next two (Big 12, ACC) and then everyone else.
- Super League: Three tiers and then everyone else.
- Reorganization: A top half (an estimated 72 schools) and a bottom half (64 schools).
His upcoming message to the Board of Visitors: athletics provides exposure, interest and applications, and Virginia Tech can either radically leap forward, maintain the status quo or fall into irrelevance.
How much does athletics impact the university? Babcock wrote that one football game with four million viewers generates almost $21 million in media exposure for the university, which he noted is 67 percent of the Virginia Tourism budget.
His numbers indicated Tech athletics generated more than $122 million in value in the 2024-25 season. He also used five examples to show how a university’s brand increases when athletics does well, from men’s basketball making the Final Four at George Mason (2006) and VCU (2011) to Cincinnati (2021) and SMU (2024) qualifying for the College Football Playoff. He referenced LSU’s football national championship in 2020, too.
Across those scenarios, those institutions saw application numbers surge by anywhere from 10 to 50 percent.
New ACC Revenue Distribution Model Resulting From The Settlement With Clemson And Florida State
In the next section, Babcock began by breaking down the ACC’s settlement with Clemson and Florida State and how the new revenue distribution model works, which is a 60-40 split.
Forty percent of the league’s base media revenue will be shared evenly with the other 60 percent being unevenly distributed based on five-year weighted TV viewership — 75 percent from football and 25 percent from men’s basketball. He also showed how the conference’s exit fee fluctuates over the next decade, from $165 million in 2025-26 to $75 million in 2030-31.
How does that impact Virginia Tech? The Hokies haven’t been in the top half of the league in football viewership numbers the last two years after being there from 2018-22. (They ranked fourth in 2018 and 2019.) In men’s basketball, they’ve only been in the top half twice — in 2021-22 and 2022-23 — since 2017-18.
Babcock transitioned that conversation into how Tech can increase viewership and evaluate return on investment, from on-field performance, non-conference scheduling and game buyout ROI to stand-alone game revenue and tune-in campaigns.
Some of the most intriguing numbers of the entire PowerPoint are next. He dove into the incremental value of football games on “linear” networks — ABC or ESPN. Contests on those channels average 1.82 million incremental viewers, which he calculated is worth $560,000 over one year or $1.61 million over five years with the ACC’s new revenue distribution model.
Then there’s the incremental wins analysis, indicating the more you win, the more you’ll play on linear networks, which equates to more revenue. A six-win season will generate approximately two linear games the next season, while an 11-win campaign would put a school on those networks around seven times — potentially an increase of $2.8 million for one year.
To wrap up this section, Babcock compared Virginia Tech to peer institutions and outlined how strong performances on the gridiron are the fastest way to grow exposure value. He also explained how much a first-round CFP appearance would boost revenue.
“Playing in the ACC Championship and a first-round campus game in the College Football Playoff generates an estimated $83-plus million in incremental value for Virginia Tech,” he wrote.
Virginia Tech Athletics Budget And Resources: Peer Analysis
In the third part of the presentation, Babcock dove into the Hokies’ budget and how it stacks up with the rest of the ACC. He wrote that their operating budget as of July 1, 2025, ranks 14th in the 18-team conference (including Notre Dame).
He didn’t label the private institutions, but there are eight of them: Boston College, Duke, Miami, Notre Dame, SMU, Stanford, Syracuse and Wake Forest.
He also provided a budget analysis of the fellow public schools and showed Virginia Tech is ninth in discretionary budget at $106 million. For comparison, Florida State is first at $155 million while Virginia is fifth at $120 million. On top of that, he noted the Hokies are below the average ($112 million) and there’s a ginormous gap between the top three, the middle three and the bottom three.
Next, Babcock explained that Tech has the lowest athletic fee in the Commonwealth of Virginia at $437. UVa is second at $736, and George Mason and Mary Washington are the only other two schools with fees below $1,000.
He broke down the athletic fees and institutional support for in-state public schools and directly compared the Hokies and Cavaliers across student fees, direct support and indirect support. Over those categories across a five-year window, he calculates there’s a difference of $38 million between VT and UVa.
What can Tech do about it? He provided 14 potential solutions, ranging from mixed-use real estate, pro-style revenue generation and improved ticket and parking to on-field success, special events (facility utilization) and athletics-led major partnerships.
He used eight different examples, including three from other Power Four universities: Georgia Tech is redirecting capital to subsidize athletics, Arizona State is eliminating debt payments and Iowa State is developing an athletics village.
What does the return on investment look like for those projects? Babcock had a chart outlining the ease of execution and the ROI. Of those, five fall in the top-right category: Enhanced premium experiences, athletics-led major partnerships, professional fundraising initiatives, pro-style revenue generation and CRM optimization.
Strategic Investment Opportunities: Investments To Win
The final part of the presentation began with Babcock outlining how to raise the Hokies’ profile, what would happen if they got left behind, what football needs to succeed and a “Virginia Tech 2030 Strategic Summit.”What kind of investment does it take? He provided nine examples from other Power Four schools, such as Clemson’s Board of Trustees approving an athletic student fee for the first time ever, resulting in an immediate annual revenue increase of $7 to 8 million.
How does Tech currently stack up against Clemson, Florida State and North Carolina in football investment? He estimated the Tigers at $60.5 million, the Seminoles at $58.8 million, the Tar Heels at $43.7 million and the Hokies at $35.8 million — $24.7 million behind the leader.
Babcock also compared Tech to the ACC’s public schools across football, men’s and women’s basketball, expenses, stadium capacity and undergraduate enrollment.
It’s slightly below the peer average in football and men’s basketball but leads the way in women’s basketball. Lane Stadium’s capacity is above average, too, but only Georgia Tech’s hoops venue (McCamish Pavilion) is smaller than Cassell Coliseum. The Hokies are also second on the list in enrollment behind FSU.
Then come the investments Babcock thinks it’ll take to win over the next three slides. The biggest items are increasing the football-specific budget, Wi-Fi enhancements to Lane Stadium, replacing the videoboard in Lane, premium seating upgrades, heating the indoor practice facility, adding 100 scholarships to Olympic Sports and increasing staffing to be on par with the top-tier ACC schools. Some are one-time expenses.
In all, Babcock calculates the total to be $52 million.
Summary
It’s a pivotal time for Virginia Tech athletics — both as a whole and specifically with the football program. Winning is important, and the Hokies have fallen behind with a half dozen 6-6 regular seasons in the last 11 years. The more you win, the better TV slots you have, meaning the more eyeballs will be on your school, which equates to more revenue — a topic that’s more important than ever with the ACC’s new revenue distribution model.
The Board of Visitors is deciding where to prioritize athletics alongside global distinction, VT advantage and advancement — the other most important topics at the university. The biggest hurdles with athletics are where to start with the investment and how to increase funding.
The Hokies currently have the 14th budget in the 18-team ACC, the lowest among public schools. Yet, the baseline for succeeding as an athletic department is only increasing, particularly with the House settlement. How does Tech go about generating revenue to close the gap with its peers?
There was a truthful line Babcock included late in his presentation: “It costs money to win, it costs money to lose.” Athletics can have a huge impact on the university if it’s done correctly, but it’s not a sure thing (and certainly doesn’t happen overnight). What’s more, to be that successful, you have to invest in solutions.
In the end, it’ll come down to how important the Board of Visitors believes athletics is at Virginia Tech and how much the group believes the Hokies can evolve in this new era. Do those members want the Hokies to keep pace and/or catch their peers, including UVa, and invest? If not, they’ll fall far behind.