it. The going rate for a high major starter in the portal is around 400-600k, with some obviously making way more than that.

I’d rather watch VT lose than contribute to paying a teenager $600k to play basketball. Think how many kids needing financial aid you could put through engineering, business, vet school, etc instead. If they want NIL, ESPN should be paying them along with maybe the bookstore off jersey sales. Not us.

The invisible hand of the market will figure out how paying players will work down the line. Capitalism for me but not for thee won't cut it though.

changes with NIL look like very similar situations. My take is that Whit was asleep at the wheel, scratching his butt and got steamrolled by both situations. He is about the WORST possible fit we could have in this environment. Oh gee, USC and LSU paid over $10 million a year for coaches. Wow. Oh gee, Duke and Miami in basketball pay backups multiples of what we pay for starters. He is weak and got this far by overpaying non-revenue coaches. He has no ability to find bargains, use strategy or craft a portfolio and now we are failing at both football and basketball. Instead of copying schools with lower budgets that are effective, he tries to outspend the big boys, but does it on non-revenue sports. This approach is about as misguided as it could possible be. ** Edited by TDVick at 11/22/2024, 3:08:13 AM

We basically just wasted whatever small amount we put toward basketball. Also true in some ways for football. We need a real NIL budget, combined with a true strategic plan on how we're going to allocate those resources. Otherwise we're just wasting our time.

So, do we fire Pry and Young for missing on both of these? Sometimes you lose in the Portal/NIL game and sometimes you win

A primary aspect of our football coaches’ jobs is to identify and develop talent that fits our scheme. Especially at the QB position. I wouldn’t say they whiffed on Drones, but he’s not performing up to expectations (or to what he’s being paid). One caveat there is that apparently he’s been playing hurt, so I can’t put that one entirely on the coaches. With Miller, it seems like there was a ton of smoke around this guy coming out of Temple. We took a chance and got burned big time, and I’m disappointed our organization decided to roll the dice on a guy like that for such a critical position. We had to have known there was a fair chance there was real substance to the point shaving allegations. Unfortunately for us, they turned out to be true and VT is left holding the bag, looking like fools for bringing the guy in.

Szefc is overpaid? At 650k a year, it may seem so, but he's in the lower end of ACC baseball Head Coach's salaries. Whit picked up Softball Coach D'Amour for 135k a year, once again probably on the lower end of ACC coaches, when first hired. Men's soccer Coach Breez makes about 185k and he's been here a long time in a great Soccer Conference. I assume Chuggar makes about the same with Women's soccer. (Overpaid?) So, after poking holes in your argument, where does Whit outspend the Big Boys as far as non rev Coaches?

So he spends it where it has the most impact? I'd be on board with that concept. I'm done with FB and $10,000,000 for a QB. VT FB should go FCS where they could be financially and athletically competitive.

to compete in the upper echelon of college football anymore. We just don't have that kind of funding available. Some hard decisions are going to have to be made, given the realities of what we're working with from a budgetary standpoint.

I don’t hate Whit. Nice enough guy, but it looks like the state of college athletics has surpassed him. We need to bring in an AD more well versed in effective dealing with this new world of NIL and portal transfers.

nobody ever has enough money but, the VT situation is allocation and utilization of what it does have. Today's environment places those two skills at an even greater premium. There was a time where no matter how angry fans were those skills were rarely questioned.

constraint. I don't doubt that we are out-funded by other schools, but we just make SO MANY terrible decisions. Stupid roster decisions with all the RBs when Fuente was here. Stacking this team with receivers when the QB's strength isn't downfield passing. Using the wrong players. Putting double unis on the field. The WORST clock management in D1. Overpaying for unproven assistants. Jumping the trigger and giving them extensions after a mediocre 7-6 year. There is some old basketball coach that has a network and can find gems. Either that our build an in-house recruiting and evaluation team (that Whit certainly can't do). Why did Hysier Miller end up here? Most likely because we don't know what the hell we're doing. Savvy coaches probably knew he might be trouble so he fell to us. It is hard to overstate just how bad our internal operations suck. That's what it looks like to me. That is even worse than the money situation. Just a dumbass fire drill operation. The one we keep seeing over ... and over. ** Edited by TDVick at 11/22/2024, 1:37:41 PM

have flushed it down the toilet.

talented rosters in MBB. My thought is that if we get to the middle of the pack or slightly below it talent-wise, MY would get these guys in the top half or 40% of the league. We should be somewhere between #6 and #8 in the MBB if we just were minimally competent with funding. Something just looks very wrong. If not, that admit that we are outgunned by BC, Pitt, Syr, GT, etc. and join the Sun Belt. Things seemed very screwed up operationally. Miami is basically the new US financial capital and seem to have money to burn. I'd say that the natural order of ACC basketball is Duke, UNC, then LOU/UVA/MIA FSU. We should be able to creep up and challenge FSU for that 6th spot and UVa isn't always that good.

Hard to justify making additional investments in a program that can’t win a buy game.

for a couple years to learn the system. The NIL era isn't conducive to productive players staying put unless you got the $$.

We blame WB, which is reasonable, but how do we know there aren’t a couple misguided donors forcing their desires cover the silent objections of informed people in the AD? Same thing is happening at Auburn and Florida.

I suppose the people noted are involved in the decision making. And, you may be right about misplaced blame on Whit. I have to assume interactions occur among NIL personnel, coaches and VT administrative personnel, but the relationships are so opaque, no one really knows. We also really know nothing about Triumph personnel salaries, overhead, administrative costs, contracts (if any) with student-athletes, etc.. Essentially, it's a "trust me with your money," and don't ask any questions. Yeah, that sounds like a good arrangement to me. But, apparently, some high rollers just can't wait to participate. This also gives Whit, coaches, etc., plausible deniability re: the outcomes of decisions made. Your post just confirms their plausible deniability. And, your supposition is reasonable, IMO, in the absence of any real info. Then, with the House decision (which will be IN ADDITION TO NIL) directing revenue sharing with student-athletes, you can expect added costs to your tickets (i.e., talent cost fees). The NCAA, ACC, administrators, and coaches have created this quagmire, either directly or indirectly. and offer no solutions, just a constant demand/begging for more money, with no accountability/transparency. Re-using an analogy I've used before, they got the fans/donors hooked, and now they keep increasing the cost of the next fix. And, we'll keep giving them money, and in fact, beg them to please take it. Fortunately or unfortunately, I'm not one of the high rollers, so they don't target me or miss my money. Take a look at the linked page. Ask them, don't ask Whit.

Kevin Jones's wife. So they got that going for them.