Virginia Tech Mailbag: ACC Realignment Musings, Borderline Redshirts And More

19 Comments

1. 

   naynay136 August 19, 2023 at 7:32 PM

   Andy - love your writing as always, very insightful and thought provoking. I’ve followed you for years from the Roanoke paper to The Athletic to here and you are always top notch. I don’t know if you take article requests via the comment section ? but I would love to know your thoughts on the deep dive piece ESPN just did on the Hokie football program since Coach Beamer retired. From my perspective it was a pretty damming evaluation of a program that became totally dysfunctional on multiple levels. I was particularly concerned by how inept it made the athletic department admin out to be, especially during the Fuente years. Makes me concerned that Coach Pry doesn’t really have a fair chance at turning things around as long as the current AD and his people are around. But you were there for all of it covering the team, so would love to know your thoughts. I trust your perspective much more than any nation publication! Thanks for you consideration.
   1. 

      Andy Bitter August 20, 2023 at 11:21 AM

      I've maintained since Fuente's ouster that a little too much of VT's failures during his time were heaped on him by fans who blamed him for ruining the program, but it felt like with the ESPN article, the pendulum swung a little too far the other way. The sources for that story clearly had an ax to grind with Whit Babcock and John Ballein, and I thought that showed in some of the framing. That was particularly true with Ballein, who was made out to be *the* problem during Fuente's time. While he and Fuente did not get along and that friction was problematic at times (Danielle Bartelstein leaving was effectively because of Ballein's meddling), the idea that the No. 2 guy in the athletic department somehow sank the football program seems far-fetched. Ballein wasn't even the sport administrator after 2018. Could he have helped Fuente more in terms of alumni outreach? Absolutely. But this notion that Nick Saban couldn't have succeeded here because of interventions by people like Ballein is absurd. (Also, Ballein has as much power at VT as he's ever had now, with three-quarters of his family working in the athletic department. He was instrumental in Pry's hiring. If things are on an upswing now, he's at least had a hand in it. I thought it was weird the article didn't mention that other than a throwaway line about him knowing Pry.) As for the financial shortcomings, a lot of that's been covered. VT's facilities and staffing lagged in the latter Beamer years and took a while to catch up. We've written extensively about that over the years, particularly the outdated facilities, which they've since upgraded. The Nike contract stinks. That's been written about endlessly and, given the apparel market, probably isn't changing too dramatically in the near future. Whit and Fuente had a brief rift post-Baylor, but that was overstated in Fuente's final year. (Fuente said repeatedly in our conversations that were not on the record that Whit had actually been great to him during the 2021 season.) So while I think there were some interesting and colorful anecdotes in the story, as I'd expect from an excellent reporter like Andrea, I'm not sure I'm buying the central thesis that nobody could have succeeded at Virginia Tech post-Beamer. Fuente needed to lay out a better vision. He needed to make better hires. He needed to recruit better, particularly in-state. He needed to develop better. He needed to foster a better culture that led to better retention. He needed to develop a better starting QB, and when he had one of Hendon Hooker's caliber, he had to not run him off. Those aren't institutional problems. Those are head coach problems. Virginia Tech's decade-long malaise was certainly a group project. No single person got the program to that point. And the fact that VT was slow to react to a changing college football landscape in terms of staffing and saw its facilities fall behind in the latter Beamer years were hurdles -- and not ones that you fix overnight. (Brand new dorms don't get built in an instant.) I've written and said plenty of times, it's not like Fuente was handed the keys to a Ferrari and crashed it. But this story really pushed the idea that he was just a helpless patsy who never could have succeeded here, and I disagree with that.
      1. 

         naynay136 August 24, 2023 at 7:53 PM

         Thank you Andy - this is exactly the insight you are so good at providing. Thank you for responding. You are the best!
2. 

   ayyybasom August 19, 2023 at 2:44 PM

   I love the article but refuse to read any more conference realignment talk. I'm so tired of the topic, especially since nothing is going to happen any time soon. It's not entertaining and it's all conjecture for the most part.
3. 

   biotech August 18, 2023 at 11:18 AM

   "The ACC chasing these schools and, presumably, the added cable TV money they would bring to the league, feels like a realignment move YOU MAKE A DECADE AGO." Very well stated. The ACC has been behind the curve and shooting itself in the foot for years. No one knows the answer and the mayhem will continue. It may well be that rejecting Cal, Stanford and SMU is just another lost toe.
4. 

   TomTurkey August 18, 2023 at 10:28 AM

   I remember the Pac 8 and Southwest conferences. Big, i.e., re: monopoly, is a human failing but seemingly inevitable. "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
5. 

   Hokie67 August 18, 2023 at 8:51 AM

   virtually all have UVA as a preference >>>> That's because the media is reporting over themselves - because they don't have the answers. They're guessing. Think UMD and Rutgers have an opinion on this? There are several Big 10 Schools who have big academic alliances with VT - particularly in engineering and hospitality. Plus - the Innovation Campus isn't a big secret in the academic world.
6. 

   namibiahoke August 18, 2023 at 3:21 AM

   What’s the deal with Notre Dame? They get miffed because they want Stanford & Cal in the ACC, but… HA…they don’t want to join themselves! If they were to join, then Cal & Stanford would make a lot more sense. A realignment landing spot for UVA and Tech is an enigma. The outlets I read virtually all have UVA as a preference in the Big10 due to the similarity in academic standards…and here I thought realignment was about football and revenues. Has anyone in the Big10 gone to a UVA football game? Add Elliot’s un-inspirational first year to the formula and UVA looks rather cavalier as an attractive addition to any conference.
   1. 

      Hokie67 August 18, 2023 at 8:51 AM

      virtually all have UVA as a preference >>>> That's because the media is reporting over themselves - because they don't have the answers. They're guessing. Think UMD and Rutgers have an opinion on this? There are several Big 10 Schools who have big academic alliances with VT - particularly in engineering and hospitality. Plus - the Innovation Campus isn't a big secret in the academic world.
7. 

   Tbone8147 August 17, 2023 at 8:03 PM

   FSU, Miami, Clemson & VT were football powers in ACC. Now even BB schools NC & Duke are above VT in football. Will VT ever be back as football power in ACC ? Beamer was unique coach & the right guy to build VT by coaching up 3 star or less recruits from VA & having Bud as DC. Now Shane is following in his footsteps @ SC. Fuente was bad hire & Prye has long way to go to build it back up. Looking like several or more very lean years.
8. 

   jfhokie August 17, 2023 at 5:16 PM

   I can see eventually a football breakaway and an alignment of the model bandied about of 4 leagues of 7 to 8 teams with their own playoffs. The basketball and Olympics stay in their original conferences The left over football schools would form their own alliances
9. 

   NEALHOKIE August 17, 2023 at 4:42 PM

   Thank you for addressing at least 1 actual football related question. Realignment will have zero impact to our on the field play or to the student and alumni experience at Tech. Let's Go Hokies!!!!
10. 

    HOaKIE August 17, 2023 at 4:11 PM

    separating football from all other sports into different groupings/conferences requires a hefty lift as it relates to the various TV contracts that current conferences have....may be too high a hill to climb quickly.
11. 

    Hokie67 August 17, 2023 at 3:17 PM

    "politicians talking for the sake of sounding important." Andy - the pols in NC run the University system - with more NCSU leaning pols than UNC leaning ones. So - the real question for their 'no' votes lay with the pols. Scorpions are scorpions no matter what color jerseys they wear. :-)
12. 

    Technocrat August 17, 2023 at 1:46 PM

    The ACC conference leaders are always caught with their pants down. They have driven the conference into obscurity - the only "good" thing they did was rope the schools into GOR, which is now screwing them because there is no incentive for the network to renegotiate. It's like the star player gets a new contract and then wants a new deal a year later. Just a complete lack of fiduciary duty, vision, or ability to execute on the ACC's part. It's a bunch of homeboys sitting around the country club not caring about anything going on around them.
    1. 

       SCHokie1103 August 17, 2023 at 2:43 PM

       That’s why I wouldn’t call them leaders. They are for sure not leading.
    2. 

       75nokehkey August 17, 2023 at 6:31 PM

       To a certain point you are correct. The amount of money is a huge problem but as you say the gor, which no one can complain about (looking at you, fsu) because all agreed, the gor is the only reason that the ACC is not dead already. Clemson, fsu and maybe Miami, unc would already be long gone, leaving the rest of us to flounder. As long as they need 8 votes to dissolve then tech has a chance. Best case scenario is the ACC big guys want to get out so bad- and therefore need techs vote so desperately that they all lobby the good conferences for a place for tech, ie -knowing they can’t have fsu unless they take tech. Tech would be crazy go vote for dissolution without a verified, quality landing spot.
    3. 

       lazarus1 August 17, 2023 at 8:36 PM

       Phillips, the commissioner, has been a bad joke. Who thought hiring him was a good idea.
13. 

    gemrooty August 17, 2023 at 1:21 PM

    Great answer to question 1. Regarding one football super conference, you wonder which schools, like Bayern Munich and PSG about forming the Euro super league, will stand up and say, “NO”!