Less than a month back Whit sat in a conference room with the Board of Visitors and delivered one message: If Virginia Tech does not radically leap forward now, our fate is likely sealed for generations to come. If what we needed then was a giant leap forward, what we have seen in the weeks that followed was that our standing in reality was actually much worse than we thought at that time.
What we saw on Saturday night is the makings for not just one of the worst VT teams in modern history, but arguably one of the worst football teams in the Bowl subdivision right now. There is no sugar-coating it, Virginia Tech football is horrifically bad. The days of being competitive against good teams are gone. The days of us being able to roll with the punches of middling ACC teams are gone. We got boat raced at home by Vanderbilt.
There's no excuse on this goddamn planet on why we are this much of a dumpster fire within the ACC. At any other program in the fucking country heads would have rolled yesterday. Whit would have been fired and we would have an interim AD with a search committee already formed. We are where we are because we are choosing to be here.
And yet, here we wait, with ESPN openly stating "the only exciting part about Virginia Tech is their entrance". A fanbase that has taken to social media to absolutely trash the administration and a home stadium that might have had 5k people in it for the last 10 minutes of the game, 3k of which were from Vanderbilt.
The time for action absolutely was 10 years ago, but that doesn't help us now. What we need now is someone to stop the bleeding. We need emergency surgery or we are going to bleed out on the table. And all the while we sit here wringing our hands over the reasons why it would be hard to move forward rather than actually do anything.
Yeah at this point when it comes to the way we talk about NIL, its all boiling down to defeatist horsecrap. Everyone else is playing the game, they're all funding their programs in full, they're all doing whatever it takes to win.
And we are sitting over here with our thumbs up our ass clutching pearls because we think the system isn't fair. Nah, the system is fair, its more fair than its ever been because at least now the money is over the table and transparent. But its easier for us to pretend that the system is rigged against us than to actually admit what is going on. We are incompetent, we are cheap asses, and we would rather make an excuse to why we can't do something than try to actually do it.
So what are we going to do? Where is the action? The entire world saw the state of VT over the weekend. Its bad. Its bad bad.
And I really do mean what are we going to do. I don't care what anyone in the administration has to say anymore. The words ring hollow. This AD and BoV are exactly why we are where we are right now. Their inability to fully grasp just how rapidly we were falling behind got us in this mess, so I really don't care to listen to how they all actually really do care about VT athletics and how appalled they are that our funding is so poor compared to our peers and all that other crap. I just don't care. Their words don't deserve the benefit of the doubt anymore. They need to prove to us through their own actions that they are trustworthy going forward, because I don't understand how anyone can trust them anymore.
So what is it? Are we serious about fixing this or not. Because if we don't action based on what the hell just happened and we don't burn everything down to remove all the rot from Merryman, we are signing our own death sentence. Whit showed that for every 10k people on average who don't show up for home football games, it costs the local economy $15m per year. Because of the unequal revenue sharing model that we voted for, teams in the bottom percentage of viewers stand to lose about $15m-$20m per year over what they were making before in revenue sharing. That reality is staring us down through the barrel of a gun and the trigger is being squeezed.
So again, show me that you care. Because if you don't action soon and don't get this ship turned around really damn quick, the most financially responsible decision might be to shutter football, bulldoze Lane and put up some residence halls and academic buildings in its place.
Comments
Preach it brother
Unfortunately, I fear it will fall on deaf ears. This administration has made it abundantly clear that they either don't care about football or are completely clueless how to make football work in this environment. Perhaps (probably?) both.
VT football as we knew it is long gone. We are entering a phase in the life cycle where we are going to be terrible for decades. Almost everyone goes through this. We just managed to have absolutely impeccable timing. We had a galactic rise under Beamer from small independent to top dog in a Power Conference and now we're just experiencing the painful meteoric fall back to the bottom. IIWII. I'm glad I was at Tech when the team was good. I don't think the football team is going to win a trophy again in my lifetime. I hope I'm wrong.
I started "caring" about 5-6 years ago. I have significantly increased my Hokie club level, donations, etc (by my standards), I don't ask for tickets or anything in return. I even have a Hokie rep. that wants to take me out for drinks in Atlanta I'm such a big shot (joking). I feel it has been a complete waste of money.
I shot dove on Saturday, watched some of the first half and was glad just to hang out and socialize, I'm happy I paid little attention to the 2nd half. For the past 25 years, I used to watch every single second of a VT football game.
Unfortunately I don't think VT is capable of doing either. We aren't capable of making that big gamble, that world-changing decision we need to get back in the race. We also are not capable of admitting we screwed up royally, so let's close up shop. I've been at the university for a decently long time now, and I have seen administration paper over programs that run in the red time and time again, because it is just too embarrassing for someone to say "this didn't work, let's give up."
I think we'll continue to stagnate under the auspices of "trying to figure things out" or "we'll try harder next time", and in the meantime, to quote Randy Quaid, we'll just
end upkeep looking like a bunch of monkeys trying to fuck a football.I absolutely love the Hokie fanbase in how loyal & passionate they have been through this downturn, but it is time they need to wake up and stop propping up this shitty excuse for an athletic department/football program. Stop donating, stop attending games, stop watching on TV. Until the revenue craters, these people will continue to be able to keep their jobs, kicking the can down the road with the hopes that tomorrow will be a better day.
Yep, I'm fully on board with boycotting until things improve. And if that means we close up shop and there is no more VT sports, then at least we aren't fooling ourselves anymore.
We're gonna sit on the pot straight through the tingly leg feeling until our legs turn black and fall off.
Lol. I think at this point we have died and fallen in the toilet ass first.
I had typed out a lot more about what happens after your legs fall off while your sitting on the jon including falling in and rotting but it got to be quite a bit over the top and far too creative.
So what you are saying is that we are the Elvis of football
As far as Virginia Tech football is concerned, in the words of the late great George Jones, "The King is Gone, and So Are You."
IMHO the rot became visible back in the days of the infamous Jason From Arlington phone call where he was told he was out of whack for pointing out the trend that anyone with a brain stem and retina could detect. Think where this program would be if we had not signed Tyrod and he hadn't stayed all 4 years. That was in the thick of the weakest 10-win seasons anyone ever saw, and then once Tyrod was gone the drop-off became more obvious. We now have a 15-year-old (longer if not for Tyrod) tradition of complacency instead of winning. I just don't even care anymore, due to self-preservation if nothing else. One can only take so much Norvasc.
The 2005 Miami game looking back was the closing of the Beamer title window. We had everything teed up, Gameday, night game in rocking Lane as the number 3 team in the country vs 5 Miami in a huge showdown. And we just completely shit the bed on the national stage. I think if ESPN were trading options on us, they would have flipped to puts that very day. We still won a lot of games and were good for many years beyond that through the Tyrod years, but that was the beginning of the downfall. Getting boatraced by LSU in 2007 was a huge warning sign, and I never felt like we were truly elite on the national stage from that point on. Then by 2012 recruiting was behind and the wheels were coming off. Many of us who have followed the program for 25-30+ years have seen this slow and steady rot happening almost in slow motion. And nobody, including under Beamer, did anything to stop it.
After we joined the ACC and won it a few times, everyone associated with Tech, from the coaches to the administration to the donors and to the average fans got complacent. We thought because we had made it, we could just ride the wave from there on our and it would be easily sailing. Worse yet, anyone who did sound the alarm of complacency was shouted down for not being able to enjoy the state the program was in with the annual 10 wins (many of which over garbage level opponents). I remember more than once seeing someone on TSL or TKP outright saying they wished that VT would go back to the gutter that it was in during everything it was before Frank just so our bandwagon fanbase could see what real bad football really looked like.
Well, those holier than thou idiots got their wish
I distinctly remember starting after 1999, the annual expectation from everyone in the fan base and coming from the program was win the national championship. Every year that was the expectation. Then sometime in the mid-late 2000s after we got complACCent, the expectation completely shifted to simply "Win 10, Win the ACC." Not many mentioned that but that was a noticeable shift in messaging from the program and media. Then by the later Beamer years, it was simply "Beat UVA, keep the bowl streak alive." Just complete slow and steady disintegration of the program and expectations. It was almost the admin was subtly trying to tell us, we don't want to actually try in football anymore.
Dont forget about that trophy case that we placed in Merryman for our future national championship trophy. I don't recall whose idea that was, but it certainly helped give a false expectation.
I partially agree with this. The administration for sure became complacent.
Many fans I know have been screaming to deaf ears for a long, long time. We were just the suckers that tried to give more money thinking it would make a difference.
The administration for sure
becamestayed complacent. FTFYThere never was a drive to really capitalize on the 1999 season.
Were we good for years after?
Yes
Were we really striving to improve?
No
Preach!!!
There are 5 things I think we should be doing NOW:
With the exception of the first bullet, all of these things are completely outside of Whit's control; they're all Pres. Sands/BoV things.
I don't feel strongly that Whit needs to be kept, but I'm not sure how much of an improvement we'll see with an upgrade at AD.
The way the law reads that Student Fees can only be 20% of the Athletic Budget.
Raise the budget to the $200M Whit requested then they could have fees at $40M rather than the roughly $22M I think they got this year. That still trails JMU significantly ($49M since law doesn't apply to them) but do I trust Whit and Merryman to manage $200M with actual progress? ABSO-F*CKING-LUTELY NOT
Can you explain why the law doesn't apply to JMU? I think I have read that before here and would like to know why there is a difference.
As I understand it, the law does apply to JMU. But VT is not charging students the maximum athletic fees allowed under VA law. While JMU is.
No it does not. It specifically applies to UVA and Virginia Tech in regards the 20% of Athletic Budget because they are the only two in a Power Conference. JMU and ODU are limited to 55% of their budget as a non-Power Conference member of FBS. FCS are 70%. It's HB 1530.
This is spot on; we are at somewhat of a disadvantage because of our higher status.
I will say that raising student fees substantially is already a thorny issue. Cost of attendance is still low at VT, and that is baked into our land grant mission - make education accessible. It's also a disproportionate impact on graduate students. And there is pressure from the federal government to keep our fees low because we are already in the top 10 nationally in terms of reliance on fees for athletic revenue (I'm still trying to figure out what that means, but it was something that Whit said).
Higher status.... lol... in what category? Have we or those responsible for this law not looked around recently? At best we're even. At the worst... I'll just say that it wouldn't surprise me that within the next 10 years JMU or ODU become the schools that pay VT to be their September cupcake win.
It's not based on success, it's based on the NCAA hierarchy. For better or worse, we are still in an FBS P4 conference. G5 ranks lower, Div II and Div III below that. The rules are different for each category. We're in the highest level of competition under the law.
Here's a somewhat relevant analog, I think.
I said that Fuente needed to fire Cornelsen after the 2018 season if he was going to be a serious HC. Basically, I hadn't completely closed the door on Fuente but firing Corny was the indicator of whether or not he was a good HC.
Similarly, I feel that way about VTs administration. They need to fire Whit. If they don't that means they don't know what they are doing or they don't care. If they fire Whit in the next month they can save face. If not, then we're stuck with an administration that can't get it done. Firing Whit is the indicator.
FTR, I don't think this administration has any interest in firing Whit so I think it is highly unlikely to happen. Whit will resign or retire before he's fired, IMO. Our football program is completely rudderless at the moment and the administration is asleep at the helm. This ship ain't turnin' around any time soon.
This ship isnt just heading in the wrong direction. It's actively taking on water and this administration isnt even bailing the water out, much less trying to plug the massive hole.
Our administration is busy patting themselves on the back for recognizing the hole exists and guffawing over the fact the hole is so much larger than they thought it could be.
There will be another gathering of the minds next month when they discuss what we might be able to do to close up the hole
I've been around C-Suite types enough to know that this is exactly right, and exactly how it works. Pats on the back for recognizing a problem that should have been obvious years ago, and was directly brought to their attention years ago and promptly shut-down, followed by endless meetings about meetings, where we *circle back* to discuss next steps and action items, and then maybe make a collective short-sighted decision via committee in six months time.
Worse than fucking congress.
We opened up as just a 10 pt favorite vs. ODU at home which in and of itself is embarrassing, but when I saw it I still thought that was too much credit to us. The market agrees and its already bet down to -7.5. I doubt VT covers that and it really feels like they will lose that game given the no show we saw in the 2nd half. Being a fan since 2010, I've seen plenty of terrible, spineless, lackluster play especially the past 5 years. But that 2nd half at home felt like a new low that solidifies just how bad of a place the program is in.
Just to add to your misery we weren't exactly great 2nd half at neutral site either...we've been outscored 45-3 in 4th quarters so far this season. Only outscored by 5 point cumulatively in quarters 1-3.
You never want to be that guy that hopes for losses, but I just have the sickening feeling that even after the utter crushing embarrassment of this past weekend, Sands and the BoV still do not see what obviously needs to be done. Any other sensible power conference football program would have shown Whit the door yesterday, and immediately brought in an interim AD to begin the process of completely rebuilding Merryman from the ground up.
I am of course, given their history of fecklessness, not shocked to wake up on Monday morning with no news.
I think fans should boycott the game this weekend, let them feel the sting of Sandman ringing out to an empty stadium, and most painfully - a loss at home to ODU.
If that doesn't make the needle move, then we are truly FUBAR.
And honestly, I'm almost equally afraid of a scenario in which we beat ODU and Wofford, pretend it's some miracle bounce-back, and pat ourselves on the back for it only to yet again go 6-6 on the rest of the season. That's exactly how mediocrity has been allowed to continue here.
precisely. Mediocrity survives here because we allow it. Anyone who doesn't tolerate mediocrity is labeled as an insatiable oaf who can't just enjoy the good things. We've gone from "why can't you just be happy we're ACC champs" to "why can't you just be happy to win 10 games" to "why can't you just be happy to go bowling" to "just shut up and be happy, we have a football team" in a span of 15 years. The folks who have been sounding the alarm the longest are the ones who saw this coming. Complacency grabbed the VT football program by the throat in the late '00s and choked it out. The BOV hasn't come to their senses yet. They haven't even woken up from losing the fight that they didn't even realize they were in.
Its like if the deck crew on the Titanic just told the crows-nest spotters to shut the fuck up and quit whining about that iceberg in a "can't you just be happy to be on the greatest ship ever made" way.
There were so many people who saw this coming. And they were ridiculed for it
I actually am numb to caring about the outcome of games at this point.
I am curious to see how many fans are in the stadium for the next two games. I'm guessing somewhere in the ballpark of 45K
I will be there. Unless something changes significantly it might be the end of my 20+ years of continuous tickets at the end of this year. But while I have tickets I will be there to support the players and cheer for my alma mater.
Maybe that's the way... a Petition from season ticket holders stating they won't be buying again unless the house is thoroughly cleaned, starting at the top.
Hey-we should see SOME good football this year in Lane; it might only be from the opponents ......
I give enough on the academic side to be offered tickets from time to time to various games. This morning I received a call from my contact asking if I wanted tickets to either the ODU or Wofford games. I declined saying that I could not bear to be in the stadium to witness them lose to those schools. I told her to call me when she had extra tickets to WBB games.
Question, do we want to shit or to get off the pot? Im unclear how this metaphor works in this case because I a lot of shit.
I want us to shit, as in rid ourselves all the mediocre to terrible excrement in our program, top to bottom, and be free to rebuild in a way that gives us a chance to be competitive.
Will we? No, we will end up somewhere in the middle. To steal someone else's metaphor, we are going to sit on the toilet for so long, thinking things will get better from a minutia of effort, that we won't ever be able to get up again because our legs will have atrophied and/or died from blood loss.
We won't get off the pot, either, because that will admit we failed at something core to our identity as a university. I can't imagine anything making the BOV's buttholes clench more tightly than that.