worth it. Lots of students go to big schools for the varsity sports competitions on campus in a big time atmosphere. You can't get that at a small state or private school for the most part.

at a smaller school but wanted the big sports environment.

Getting half of the House budget knocked out isn’t a bad thing. And VT still has the lowest student athletic fees in Virginia.

** Edited by hokieZ71 at 6/16/2025, 7:28:12 PM

(maybe I need clarification on what that means) Not much academic merit aid is available these days (certainly not at a place like VT anyway)...and much of what is available is donor-funded. Athletic scholarships should be different?

The school, and if the academic part was controlled by the University, then academic eligibility would come into play again. Don't have the credit hours? Then you can't transfer, play, and your out.

but I'm not sure how funding their scholarships relates. And the university does control academic eligibility. You can dislike the easier paths that exist for athletes, but the university is offering the courses and handing out the grades and credits. Have "the school" fund athletic scholarships and I don't see how anything really changes...other than some academic pursuits currently school-funded take a financial hit.

A. If we were to stop having big-time athletics, much of our academic competition likely would as well. That's not something likely to happen on a VT island. B. There's a great big world out there that doesn't care about athletics the way people on an athletics message board do. Sure, some kids are looking for big time athletics as part of the college experience, but a whole lot wouldn't change their minds if it disappeared. Many would hardly even notice. There's definitely a skewed view of what the role and value of athletics is in a university within the TSL community. C. Even if it was joking below, we haven't been very "big time" for a while...yet, demand and enrollment has continued to be very strong. D. We hear stories on these boards all the time about great students who don't get admitted. Even if demand went down, it wouldn't be so bad. Plenty of great students would still be dying to come and VT would remain a great destination.

future. For example, the current administration appears to want to scale back how much the Government spends on contracts, cooperative agreements, and grants. If that happens and VT sees a reduction in how much funding it receives each fiscal year, then it shouldn't matter if VT athletics is "big time" or not because the academic side of the house may be forced to make decisions (i.e. cuts) as a result of the changes. It may depend on whether VT can find funding from other sources to offset the lose of federal funding. It is why a lot of schools are watching to see how the Harvard-Trump Situation plays out because it could have a direct and indirect impact on them going forward.

kidding people, relax....It's different for different univesities...BUT to your point, the Lane Kiffin effect is real....And I can't imagine out of states going to Alabama if not for football...etc etc...