I think Brian White’s hiring is a meaningful signal that Virginia Tech recognizes the next era of college athletics will be won as much through fundraising, revenue creation, donor alignment, and strategic investment as through traditional administration. White does not arrive with the résumé of a longtime Power Four athletic director, so there is legitimate reason to question how quickly he can navigate the scale, politics, and expectations of the ACC. But he has a clear background in external revenue, development, ticketing, and brand-building, and he helped lead an FAU department that raised more than $26 million in philanthropic support in 2024–25 while its men’s basketball program reached the Final Four. For football, I expect White to view a successful, nationally relevant program as the department’s essential economic engine. His task will be to build the fundraising and roster-support infrastructure that gives Virginia Tech a realistic chance to compete in the ACC—while ensuring that football investment is disciplined and tied to a credible plan for sustained winning, not simply larger spending. For basketball, White has seen firsthand what an unexpected basketball breakthrough can do for a university’s visibility, donor energy, and national brand. My expectation is that he will treat football as the largest long-term priority, but see basketball as a high-leverage opportunity: a program that can become nationally relevant more quickly, create major moments for Hokie Nation, and attract its own dedicated donor base. The most encouraging version of this hire is not “football over basketball" (though that will be the case -- because every AD knows it must be football over basketball). It is an athletic director who understands that Virginia Tech needs a bigger overall revenue base, clearer priorities, and a strategy that allows football to become the engine while basketball grows strong enough to capitalize on its easier path to national relevance.