In the wee hours last night, Virginia Tech released open session materials for the BOV meeting in June.There's a presentation on forming an athletics-related LLC, Hokie Ventures, to promote business operations in the #Hokies athletic department.https://t.co/YsFzZjK6Qk— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) May 23, 2026
Official: the BOV will be voting on "a resolution to affiliate with a new university-related corporation in support of intercollegiate athletics." pic.twitter.com/gaoyBeSli7— Doug Bowman (@DougBowman247) May 22, 2026
The BOV will provide initial funding of $15.2M for Hokie Ventures, which comes out of the bridge funding the BOV approved in August 2025 for Athletics. Here are the conditions of the loan - no interest rate and covers up to three months of planned operating expenses. pic.twitter.com/6j8tOb4c9U— Doug Bowman (@DougBowman247) May 23, 2026
Couple more couples from the presentation, which will be delivered by VT COO Amy Sebring and VT athletics CFO Brandon Hall. pic.twitter.com/ypqTS38VYf— Doug Bowman (@DougBowman247) May 23, 2026
Lots and lots to digest here, but the big takeaway is that this is our official pivot to handling the current and next era of college sports and splitting away everything NIL and revenue generating from the core athletic department and handling it more strategically. Very interested to see where this goes down the line.
Comments
Fascinating. This probably opens up the opportunity to sell shares to an MMR a or private equity (like Utah or B10 considered). Also limits the FOIA-bility of athletics.
Indeed.
"or private equity"
I already have to deal with it a work.
It also gives an ability for donors to now be investors. No idea if that's a plan, but calling it Hokie Ventures makes it seem like that's part of the plan.
If Athletics is a separate business does that exclude it from Title IX? I get thats not the intent but ...
I would think the short answer is "No". Title IX would only impact the Portion handled by the school which would be the school and sport itself.
The corporate part would handle monies paid to the players and staff and coaches that are not under the direction of the public entity.
Sounds like they are using the NFL as a blueprint.
I believe I saw a post from Doug Bowman that this potentially could lead to the removal of term limits for the Rector and Vice Rector. And I'm trying to not violate the ToS because you can probably see where I'm going with this, but I'm not a fan of no term limits...
I asked Claude how common term limits are for university rectors and equivalent positions:
I see where you're going with OP, but it doesn't seem like doing this would be different from any other American university.
They are, but I think that's a separate resolution they are also addressing
Some additional context
From Nick Lord:
Virginia Tech is voting June 1 to create Hokie Ventures LLC 👀
The structure splits the job in two. The AD manages coaches, athletes, and general operations. The CEO of Hokie Ventures runs the commercial side: sponsorships, multimedia rights, naming rights, and donor engagement.
It will be governed by an independent board, not the university, giving it flexibility to operate like a business.
Virginia Tech is capitalizing it with $15.2 million from the $229.2 million "Invest to Win" plan approved last fall.
The person presenting the plan to the Board is Brandon Hall, Virginia Tech's athletics CFO. He was Clemson's CFO when Clemson Ventures launched in 2024. He's bringing the blueprint with him.
They also built in the option to convert to a for-profit structure down the road to manage NIL and attract private capital.
This is also happening as Virginia Tech simultaneously searches for a new AD, a new university president, and a new Hokie Club director. The LLC is part of a complete reset of how the institution approaches athletics commercially.
Clemson, Kentucky, Michigan State, and Texas Tech have all moved in this direction. The separation of commercial operations from traditional athletic department functions is becoming the standard.
Good. This is pro sports now whether one likes it or not. Glad to see we're taking steps to treat it like pro sports
Are they hiring?
https://www.thekeyplay.com/comment/1356491#comment-1356491
Do I get the job now?
This will only be as successful as the people tapped to lead it. If the search starts and stops in Montgomery County, it's another good concept that VT will screw up.
If a Ballein or Babcock have roles or seats on the board, that will tell you how this plays out.
Hopefully the fact that they brought someone from outside to advise and structure this for VT means that they are looking beyond the duck pond for the right talent.
Idk- this guy could do as good or better job than Ballein....
Methinks better... Reminds me of a professor I had my freshman year for freshman economics... after the mid-terms he would go through the overall class statistics and highlight the lower-end of the scores and some of the abysmal results. He would then add that he also had a head of cabbage take the exam, and the head of cabbage performed better.
No thanks. The world doesn't need another book (and podcast) about how tough BUD/S was.
well that was an otter not a seal but.....
Oh, well then, he ought'er do better than Ballein, after all.
There is no desire to ship in-house people into this new entity. Remember that the current BOV is loaded with very successful businesspeople. We're looking at doing something that maybe about 15 other universities across the country have done. We don't want to put ourselves out there and trip over ourselves, because in such rare company, that's going to stand out and ruin things for a long time.
Thanks for the reassurance that VT no longer wants to trip over it's own....um, gobbler.
Another step towards privatizing ownership of college athletics...
you can't have tax payers cover losses while gains go private if you dont have a private company, duh
How screwed is this now that Rocovich has been removed? 👀🙃
***Editing to say: I wasn't aware that the idea now was for it to move from an LLC to being nonprofit based.
Well, the next Rector won't be laser focused on understanding why football is important to the Universities health.
Worse case scenario is that the money gets clawed back, Franklin leaves, and we welcome our new conference rivals JMU in 2030
JMU will smoke us if thats the case because none of the politicos seem interested in tinkering with them
And we know this because......
?
Because this is a pure political move, and therefore a political crony will be appointed rector and not necessarily someone who has ties to VT
And we know this because....
?
She has appointed Ed Baine, a Virginia Tech alumnus and former Board of Visitors member to replace Rocovich. So, at least it's someone with ties to VT.
That was fast!
Quick google says he's an Exec at Dominion Energy. Was electrical engineering grad from VT. Has been a BOV member in the past appointed by Northam and Youngkin
yes, on the face of it, appointing his replacement with someone who has enjoyed bi-partisan support historically, indicates to me that perhaps this wasn't actually politically motivated. But I'm sure I'll never know for sure