Virginia Tech BOV to consider vote on athletics-related LLC
Virginia Tech’s Board of Visitors is on the verge of shaking up the athletic department by turning over the department’s business and revenue-generating operations to a new company.
The board will consider a proposal during its upcoming meeting on June 1-2 to create Hokie Ventures, a nonprofit limited liability company. Hokie Ventures will be affiliated with the university and will be run by a yet-to-be-hired chief executive officer.
That CEO and the Tech athletic director will essentially split the responsibilities needed to run a modern athletic department.
The athletic director will have his or her traditional duties in overseeing coaches, student-athletes and day-to-day operations.
In the newly created role, the CEO will oversee Hokie Ventures. The venture’s main goal is to elevate the business operations of the athletic department by maximizing existing revenue streams and securing new revenue opportunities.
The CEO also will oversee commercial aspects such as pursuing sponsorships, multimedia rights and naming rights. That individual also can help generate revenue, uncover new business opportunities and better engage donors.
The venture also provides flexibility to create a for-profit structure. That model could manage future NIL opportunities for student-athletes or secure private capital, if Virginia Tech desires.
The Board of Visitors posted open session materials for the meeting shortly after midnight Saturday.
If the board approves the venture, the university will immediately need to begin a search for a Hokies Ventures CEO while it is searching for an athletic director to replace the outgoing Whit Babcock.
Virginia Tech’s move to create a modernized athletic department structure follows a trend of athletic departments forming LLCs to increase revenues as annual operational costs continue to rise.
Universities like Clemson, Kentucky, Michigan State, West Virginia and Texas Tech have announced the formations of LLCs in the last two years.
Virginia Tech athletics CFO Brandon Hall will be joined by university COO Amy Sebring in leading the presentation to the Board of Visitors.
Hall served as Clemson’s athletics CFO from 2020-24 and was in that role when the Clemson athletic department created Clemson Ventures in August 2024.
Part of the presentation will include asking for a $15.2 million start-up loan. That funding is expected to come from the bridge loan that was approved by the Board of Visitors in September 2025 as part of the “Invest to Win” initiative, which immediately infused $229.2 million into the athletic department spanning four years.
That increased funding, which helped raise the university’s annual athletic budget to the $200 million mark and put Virginia Tech on par with the likes of Clemson and Florida State near the top of the ACC, was instrumental in the hiring of football coach James Franklin.
The potential creation of Hokie Ventures comes at a critical juncture for Virginia Tech and its athletic department.
The university has begun searching to replace Tim Sands as university president and Babcock as athletic director, along with finding a new executive director for the Hokie Club.
The alignment between university leadership has been highlighted multiple times by Franklin. He said that alignment is crucial for the football program as it aims to be among the ACC’s best on a yearly basis.
Virginia Tech football coach James Franklin welcomes his team onto the field before the start of the annual spring game on April 18 at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg.
Babcock announced in late September that Virginia Tech’s athletic department will transform into a modernized structure “more in line with professional football organizational structure on the football side of things, and from an athletic department standpoint, a structure and organization more in line with corporate business.”
He was asked what the structure of the modernized athletic department was going to look like during his sit-down interview with four reporters earlier this month.
Babcock
“We’ve already started some of that from more of the pro, GM model front office-type stuff,” Babcock said. “I believe college athletics has changed so much. The traditional model, does it become more professional? Does it become its own entity? Is football separated out from the university?
“I’ve been involved in some planning meetings that have talked about the next model and what it should look like. That’s about all I can share on that. You see it across the country. Some people are doing outside entities. Some people are having corporate CEOs and an AD for football, and this and that. I don’t know which way that’s going to go. I know with all the change that there’s still got to be more modernization on that front.”
Hall also will provide an update on the “Invest to Win” budget. That includes $14 million in facility enhancements, $19 million in budgetary and personnel increases, and increasing scholarships from 272 to 361.5.
Danny White, who was promoted to deputy athletic director on April 17 and has served as football’s sport administrator since 2018, will provide the athletic director’s update instead of the outgoing Babcock.
The update will touch on several topics ranging from facility improvements to discussing the differences between revenue sharing and NIL.
White also will present a resolution to approve changes to Student-Athlete Conduct Policy No. 1035. Full board approval will be required to update the policy to allow the university to terminate revenue-sharing payments “in accordance with” the athlete’s revenue-sharing contract if any athlete is convicted or a felony and/or is dismissed from the team because of a misdemeanor conviction.
Damien Sordelett (540) 981-3124
