#Hokies announce term sheet for head coach James Franklin. pic.twitter.com/oLulQB900r— David Cunningham (@therealdcunna) November 21, 2025
It's $41,750,000 over five years for #Hokies' Franklin. Effective Nov. 15, 2025, through Dec. 31, 2030. His payments from Tech break down like this:• 11/15/25-12/31/25: $6M• 2026: $6M• 2027: $5M• 2028: $4M• 2029: $12.75M• 2030: $13.25M— David Cunningham (@therealdcunna) November 21, 2025
Buyout figures if James Franklin were to leave the #Hokies before the end of his contract. pic.twitter.com/aWj7uuHMOP— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) November 21, 2025
If Franklin chooses to leave he owes:
8M - Before July 15 2026
6M - Before Dec 15 2026
4M - Before Dec 15 2027
2M - Before Dec 15 2028
1M - Before Dec 15 2030
VT termination without cause, he's owed remainder, but does have offset language and obligation to seek employment (Not full Jimbo)
If Franklin were to be fired without cause before 2030, the #Hokies would owe him the remainder of his contract. There is offset language in there should he get another coaching job. He would be required to make reasonable efforts to find one.— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) November 21, 2025
The #Hokies' salary for 10 full-time assistant coaches is $9.5M. Based on 2024 numbers from USA Today public schools, that would rank fourth, just ahead of Alabama's $9.475M (behind Ohio State, Georgia, Clemson).It's $6M for the support staff, so $15.5M in total.— David Cunningham (@therealdcunna) November 21, 2025
Comments
Came here to post this, seems very low from what we had heard
The $40M ballpark makes sense when you look at the negotiated buyout number from Penn State.
I really like the $9.5M for assistants and $6M for support
agree, those are the important numbers
Edit: all told this is about what I expected we needed to spend in the $23m range.
Yep, buyout pays out at like $2.25M per year for four years so he will be over $10M per year for first 4 years of deal and by then he will either have renegotiated a new deal or moved on.
I mean i'd hang out through the 2030 season at least....
$3 million is a lot of coupons!
We might even be able to upgrade to Cook Out coupons.
So this is what being serious about football feels like. It's been so long I had almost forgotten. I like it.
looks like he also gets $6M for the first 6 weeks so closer to $48 million total plus bonuses and perks
Where did you see the $6m for 6 weeks?
• 11/15/25-12/31/25: $6M
We're paying him more to recruit and schmooze for the next month than we are to coach AND recruit (on average) for the next three.
Guessing the step-down salary is paralleled by a step up in Penn State money so they aren't on the hook all at once. Kinda hate that. Was hoping terms would hurt them more.
I dunno if we'll ever hurt them in the wallet, so it's best we hurt them on the trail.
I mean the $9m up front that Franklin got from PSU is probably $3m/year offset from 2026-2028 or something
I definitely skimmed past that. Thanks
I saw somewhere it's prorated so he gets $750k.
I love it. Win win for everybody it seems. The assistant pool is huge @ #4 in the country.
that's great right now but we won't enter next season 4th, but hopefully top 10
Fair.
Franklin to the rest of the ACC
Am I hallucinating?
How much money does he get for nil?
They're not going to share this publicly.
You get no money for nil. Nil=0 by definition.
How does the assistant pool shake out if pry is dc and already being paid buyout?
I've wondered myself what the deal would be if Pry comes on staff in some capacity what would happen to his buyout money?
They will need to pay him a salary in order to be employed, but my guess is that Pry would take a standard or just below standard salary (average ACC salary for position). Smaller salary increases the assistant pool money for other coaches, but it is not a major advantage for VT to go as low as possible. Ultimately the salary and buyout are on the same balance sheet. And underpayment sets up for awkward situation when the buyout ends. For example, if he goes from $500K during the buyout years to $1.5M after and the assistant pool remains fixed, where does that $1M come from?
So, unless my math is wrong, over the next three years, we're getting Franklin for less than we would have paid Pry.
Plus 6m signing bonus effectively
No, effective date through 12/31/25 is $6M prorated.
Should we be concerned that his buyout is as low as it is?
The first time he puts us in the ACCCG or wins us 10 games, there will be schools looking to poach him.
The schools that are looking to poach him will not care what his buyout figure is - they'll pay it and figure out the money later.
This is one of the major problems with the disparity in TV revenue.
EDIT: and it'll be up to us as an institution to keep him in the boat when that happens, just like it was up to us to get him in the boat this time.
If we're going to be a part of a new era of funding, it'll be a new way of funding long term, not just this one time.
I have no premonition here that he is a "lifer"... he came here to prove the world wrong. This is low hanging fruit here for him... great football tradition, national brand, in his recruiting area, super underperforming team, disjointed operation and now a big boy budget. He'll get us wins, a conference title and an appearance in the playoffs and then go cash in with a top top school. Seems perfect (and sounds familiar... buzzzz). I'm all for being used like this.
Maybe, maybe not
This isn't VT basketball when we were in way over our heads hiring Buzz. James Franklin and VT football are a good match for each other, and with the right leadership, our program has every bit the potential to hit the same peaks that you saw out of Clemson and Florida State the last 20 years.
If we are paying a top 10 salary and he gets us to where we want to be, we will be in the playoffs often, we will be positioned very well for a P2 bid and we'll have the resources to pay him whatever he wants.
Genuinely speaking, if we hold up our end of the deal here, going to another school won't be as attractive an opportunity as you'd think. It's a mistake going into this thinking the clock is already running on when he'll leave us for greener pastures
Yeah, I agree with this. VT is a good fit with Franklin, and we're willing to pay top dollar. After a few years, it would cost serious money to outbid VT and cover the risks of a move.
No, this is a very normal amount. For example, Lane Kiffin's is $ 4 million right now and drops to $ 1.5 million by the last year of his current contract.
The info I was looking for - thank you
This flew over my house today and I learned it's in town for tomorrow's flyover.
I should've known the contract was huge. This plane's the only thing big enough to deliver that kinda cash. I suppose they can just supply drop it to him on the 50 yard line tomorrow in front of all the recruits.
Hopefully some of that cash lands on the croots too
Air drop a few Ferraris on pallets
Those things fly over my house super low, it rattles everything
That would be a KC-130 Tanker and two V-22 Ospreys!
Big damn planes, lots of noise and vibration. The cargo haulers have flown over too, and we're right in line with the route the fighter jets use for training or whatever.
It is pretty neat because we're no where near any military installations here in the northwest shenandoah valley
Growing up in Winchester, this was a semi regular occurrence. Pretty sure there's an air national guard unit out of Martinsburg.
Yes there is one in Martinsburg, and i know some of them are headed to/from there. Just seems they come over super low being that far from Martinsburg or Quantico or wherever. Now my house is on top of a foothill so i'm elevated quite a bit so that nay be part of it.
Northwest Shenandoah valley puts you near Winchester or StevenCity. I swear I feel like I know who you are.
Eh, i more or less meant NW Virginia; i guess i'm more central shenandoah valley.
I worked in Front Royal for a long time and am really familiar with the Stephens City, Winchester, Clearbrook areas.
We've been in the little town of Shenandoah since 2014, it's about 20 minutes north of Harrisonburg
Is that the size of plane we needed to get all the coots to the game tomorrow?
Just the linemen.
Personal note... that's my plane! Upon graduating with my MBA in '96 I went to work in the Finance Department for Boeing's C-17 program in Long Beach (actually then it was McDonnell Douglas). I joined the program when they were on their 8th plane I believe and each plane was being built at a cost north of $200m. I think they've delivered over 300 now. The plane is badass... I used to take my bag lunch over to what was called Building 54 (major join/assembly) and watch them attach the wings to the fuselage. It was amazing to see up close as there was a picnic table for some reason right in the middle of the line for people to take breaks and since I had clearance I could go in there. The good 'ol days...
love these connections. my brother flies C17s so you probably had a hand in a way in the ones he has flown
They are amazing aircraft. I'd be nervous as hell to fly one this low.
I just want to know what laws were breaking to get this money
Laws we should've broke a decade ago.
Don't worry about that maroon meth that just hit the market
What's the street name for it? Maroon fire?
Hokie stone
Yep, definitely going to be using that going forward
Newton's First Law
Any thoughts on why we werent able to go longer to get more penn state money?
Technically he wouldn't have gotten a payout from them at all since he was making $8.166M a year there which makes the per year difference actually in Penn State's favor. They could have played hard ball and said we wont owe you a dime.
I like that 9 million of Franklin's compensation was essentially paid by Penn State.
This is eyewatering, but I trust that Franklin is capable of attracting that much money to the program.
In Franklin we trust.
Donate up, boys and girls.
Watched his interview with Roth and he said he brought 8 recruiting and admin staff with him already working behind the scenes. Putting this new budget to immediate use. love that
They have a lot of work to do before next year.
before today even but yeah agreed
He also said he didn't have a title or salary yet for them but they would figure it out when they got to Blacksburg. They showed up without that information and started working.
Sounds like lane kiffin has multiple 13M offers on the table including arkansas... Seems like we are getting a "deal" for a great coach
P2 coaching at P4 prices. Excellent value for our buck.
A quick note about this:
Just remember that we are comparing Franklin's salary/coaching budget to data that is two football seasons old... the 5th biggest budget in 2024 could very likely be the 25th biggest budget when the 2026 season kicks off.
But the dedication to being there is present and we have a university aligned to making it happen. Sands announced that he's forming an Oversight Committee just for football to ensure we are funding our program at a nationally competitive level, so we are being proactive to make sure that we don't fall behind again.
And let's be honest, James Franklin wouldn't have taken the job if he didn't believe in that plan, and he's much more in tune with how these things work than any of us.
The committee will look at all athletics spending, but the focus will be on football since (of course) that's where the lion's share of the money is going. Source: I'm on the committee.
It's being chaired by EVP/COO Amy Sebring, who is one of the most talented people I've ever met. She gets shit done and has absolute mastery over performance metrics, budgeting, and strategic planning.
She seems qualified (using the serious meaning of the word).
https://evpcoo.vt.edu/about-evpcoo.html
The other major discrepancy is bonuses and third-party pay. Alabama pays its entire staff $49MM factoring that in. I am pretty sure (not certain) that the USA Today database is only looking at base salary.
Hard to get totally accurate numbers for anything related to college sports spending. But I do think it'll be top-3 in the ACC by kickoff next year.
They do
I have a question, ia this money for coaches and staff just salary? If an OC makes $2m then does that leaves 7.5 left or do you account for health care and other benefits? Or is this in addition to the salaries that you see when jobs are posted at like 60k for a coach and then we can pay $9.5m ontop of all the base salaries?
Woo BIG BOY FOOTBALL
It's a bit soon, but I think the term you're looking for is "big dawg".
But it looks like to me that college football fans everywhere are going to have to pull out their wallets and donate in order to keep their teams relevant.
So one interesting piece of his contract is his bonus structure around television viewership. First place ranking in ACC gets him $800K. That honestly is a super deal for the Hokies. The new ACC Viewership portion would mean if Franklin has us #1 for four years in a row, the Hokies would pay him an additional $3.2M but the school should receive almost $40M over that timeline if it happens. There are bonuses for each of the top five spots in ACC viewership each year for Franklin.
Per Tim Thomas of Tech LunchPail
SCOOP: Per sources, Penn State recruiting coordinator Chris Mahon is following James Franklin to Virginia Tech, was already in contact with recruits this past week, and helped host visits this past weekend.
https://x.com/TimThomasTLP/status/1992672084992954605?t=unsa4SEydivX2vUt...
Makes a lot of sense. Particularly as these folks don't know if a new administration would keep them or not.
So what type of jump did we see from what VT gave Pry salary-wise and for his assistants and staff compared to what we gave Franklin?
I saw an old post on here saying se initially gave Pry 5.5 million for his assistants. That's a big boy jump!
It's further up in the thread:
Assistant Coach Pool
$5.5M -> $9.5M
Support Staff Pool
$3.4M -> $6M
Recruiting Budget
$1.2M -> $3M
So basically doubled the budget across the board, and didn't the NIL budget swell to $15m/yr?
Gnarly. I actually dug up an old post on here stating that the initial support staff value for Pry was 2.25 million, so even more of a nice bump.
2024 we we are 4.9m for assistant coaches. I know Monty got 0.6m more than Bowen but Moore was less than Crooks so we arent spending 5.5m this year.
Wait and see... it's absolutely a step in the right direction. But the arms race is real. This might have been good for the 5th highest coaching payroll 2 seasons ago. My guess is it will be 25th-ish at the start of 2026.
Caught in a landslide.
Did you see my reflection in the snow covered hills?
Crap wrong song.
But not a bad song.
Sorry for my ignorance and resurrecting a second page thread; are the assistant & recruiting figures we've been discussing meant to be annual or spread over the duration of the contract?
Annual