One week after the announcement of James Franklin as Virginia Tech’s head coach, it still seems surreal.
Before I go on, let’s be clear about one thing: This isn’t hero worship. I’m not awestruck by James Franklin and Penn State.
But this is a guy that I’ve been watching head up the Penn State football program since 2014, when Frank Beamer still roamed the sidelines at Virginia Tech. Franklin was the face of the Penn State program for 11-plus years, a span of time in which Beamer retired, Justin Fuente was hired and fired, and Brent Pry was hired and flamed out. That’s a lot of transition in Blacksburg, while Franklin was PSU’s head coach the entire time, seemingly rooted in place and unmovable.
You get used to seeing a guy in a particular role, and when that rapidly changes and a coach who’s been wearing navy blue for over a decade is suddenly 15 feet away from you in orange and maroon, talking about how pleased he and his family are to be in Blacksburg, that’s a “What just happened?” moment.
It’s the “TV star” effect. I’ve only ever seen James Franklin on television, coaching someone else. To see him in person, as Virginia Tech’s head coach, is surreal. We’ll quickly get used to it, but for now, it feels strange.
It’s not like it happened all that quickly, either. This thing dragged on for weeks. If nothing else, I’m glad it’s over, and now we can move on and see where things go from here.
Donations And Ticket Revenue: Up, Up And Away
For the last week, Virginia Tech has been national news. Hiring James Franklin is a bold move that has drawn attention from news sources, pundits and podcast hosts across the country.Virginia Tech has now made two moves that have drawn nationwide press and together make the statement that the Hokies are serious again: (1) announcing an infusion of cash into the athletic department, and (2) hiring an accomplished veteran head coach to allocate that cash for assistants and staff and make Virginia Tech nationally relevant again.
Hiring Franklin has restored credibility to the Virginia Tech program, and fans are responding and will continue to respond. Rumors have surfaced of an unexpected anonymous eight-figure donation in the wake of the hire, and in the coming months, I think we’ll see a surge in rank-and-file donations.
I also think we’ll see Virginia Tech sell out Lane Stadium again. After selling out all six home games in 2024 (average attendance 65,632), attendance dipped to 59,946 in 2025, so predicting a sold-out 2026 season isn’t a stretch.
Here’s game-by-game announced attendance in 2025:
- Vanderbilt: 65,632
- Old Dominion: 57,627
- Wofford: 57,229
- Wake Forest: 65,632
- Cal: 53,837
- Louisville: 54,030
- Miami: 65,632
That Miami sellout was announced back on October 15, and in the end, there were a ton of empty seats in Lane Stadium Saturday. But hey, it’s in the books as a sellout.
For seven home games, that’s a total of 39,805 tickets that were not sold in 2025. Per-game ticket prices ranged from $65 to $110, so let’s say the average ticket price was $85. Multiply that by 39,805 and you’ve got $3.38 million in lost football ticket revenue. Sell out every game in 2026 and you get that back immediately.
I don’t know if the mini-packages and special promotions that Virginia Tech has deployed to sell out games result in lower per-ticket revenue. They probably do, so selling as many full-priced season ticket packages as possible, without having to resort to special promotions, could boost ticket revenue even higher.
Paying For James Franklin
We captured James Franklin’s compensation details in a Friday article, but I’ll repeat them here, plus the salary pool for assistants and support staff (per this Andy Bitter tweet):| Year | Franklin | Assistants | Support Staff | Total |
| 2026 | $6 million | $9.5 million | $6 million | $21.5 million |
| 2027 | $5 million | $9.5 million | $6 million | $20 million |
| 2028 | $4 million | $9.5 million | $6 million | $20 million |
| 2029 | $12.75 million | $9.5 million | $6 million | $28.25 million |
| 2030 | $13.25 million | $9.5 million | $6 million | $28.75 million |
| Year | Pry | Assistants | Support Staff | Total |
| 2026 | $5 million | $5.5 million | $2.25 million | $12.75 million |
| 2027 | $5 million | $5.5 million | $2.25 million | $12.75 million |
| Year | Franklin/staff | Pry/staff | Difference |
| 2026 | $21.5 million | $12.75 million | $8.75 million |
| 2027 | $20 million | $12.75 million | $7.25 million |
The real pot-sweetener, however, could come from the ACC’s new TV revenue sharing model, which rewards schools with better viewership. From this AP article:
Most notably, the revenue-distribution model will now incorporate TV viewership as a way for the league’s top programs to generate more revenue. That formula would see 60 percent of the league’s TV revenues go into a pot for distribution based on a rolling five-year formula tied to viewership ratings, while the remaining 40 percent would be distributed equally among the members.
The upside could be $15 million or more for top-earning schools, while it could also result in a decline of about $7 million for others, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Monday.