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"Would you be happy if your current employer told you and all of your co-workers that you needed to take a 10% paycut because they couldn't afford to pay you your current salary but they then let go of a top executive and gave him a multi-million dollar buyout? "- I hear what you are syaing, but this is a false equivalence. The head coach at VT or UVA is the state's highest paid state employee- by a long, long margin. This is the reality. To compare this to any private or publicly traded company is not a valid argument, IMO. In terms of myself- Our executive team does not make millions more than me or millions period. Maybe the CEO after equity- maybe. So in your scenario, we would get an email aksing us to take a 10% cut and a new exec coming in- sure, OK... but you are talking about people that make from 85K-300K and the new guy making 550K- maybe. It's not the VT employee scanrio where Mike Young and Pry are BY FAR the schools highest paid guys because of the baller industrial complex.. real companies you don't see this disparity typically.

The optics involved weren't Head Football Coach buyout vs Tenured Professor salary. It was Head Coach buyout + New Head Coach salary vs all staff salaries. That meant telling every janitor, secretary, lunch lady, professor, etc. that they had to take pay cuts because VT couldn't afford to pay them a dollar or two per hour (not forgo raises, but take less than what they were currently being paid) all while VT very publicly paid out a multi-million dollar payout to Fuente and would then have to announce a multi-million dollar salary for his replacement. All this done during a pandemic that no one knew how long it would last or how far reaching its economic effects would extend.

Would you be happy if your current employer told you and all of your co-workers that you needed to take a 10% paycut because they couldn't afford to pay you your current salary but they then let go of a top executive and gave him a multi-million dollar buyout? And, by the way, they publicly announced that they hired that executives replacement for even more millions. Now imagine that every move your company makes is covered by a slew of reporters. You think your employer wants that smoke?

Look, long-term I agree that the decision to keep Fuente for another year set VT back considerably. But part of the narrative involves second-guessing the decision with the information that we have now. At the time, no one knew how long the pandemic was going to last. Most schools lost money during that first year of COVID and VT had no way of knowing how long those losses would continue. They were trying to weather very uncertain times, so I can see the thinking behind trying to avoid any large expenditures or investments in such uncertain times. A blue-blood like Michigan or anOSU could probably pull it off, but VT didn't have the cash to do what had the potential to be a very costly move with more economic uncertainty looming.

I also understand wanting to avoid the potential of getting killed by the media and public based on the optics of the whole situation. An SEC school could pull that off since their fans care more about football than their own best interests, as you continually point out, but VT doesn't have that luxury.

I would have preferred that they got rid of Fuente at that time, but I won't call the decision "short-sighted" or "penny-wise/pound-foolish" based on all of the factors at play and the information that VT had at that time. It sucked, but the whole situation sucked and they were in a no-win situation with a ton more uncertainty around each possible decision than usually comes with the firing and replacing of a head coach.

With all of those factors in place, there is no way that this was a decision made at Whit's level. Likely, Whit called the press conference, but his superiors over-ruled him at the last minute and left him to fall on the sword. I suspect that one day the truth of the situation will eventually come out, bit I'm not holding my breath.

This would all seem to be wildly illegal without contracts and a CBA. It's anti-competitive (so you'd need some kind of anti-trust exemptions and a CBA), and the idea that you could withhold/claw back money for work that had already been done doesn't seem... great. Especially if a player's NIL deals aren't locked in stone (why you'd need contracts). That would leave open the possibility of a massive reduction in pay from the school with no player recourse, plus you'd lose some money you already earned if you left?

Severn can't play dead in a western. Can't play. He is the result of trying to put a roster together with no money. You sign guys like him. If he couldn't get playing time for us this year, he stinks.

This exact issue came up on Domonique Foxworth's podcast this week, about how the Big East is going to have a significant advantage with NIL since they don't have football to support (at least not at the level of Power 4). Georgetown/St Johns / Villanova can put much more $$$ into hoops.

I watched 10x more basketball during the tourney this year than I did during the regular season.

10 x 0 = 0

Huh? 30 spots is a roster limit, not a scholarship mandate

Or he was playing the long game of getting hired in the SEC, if you aint cheatin' you ain't tryin' /s

Mutual agreement of separation but my understanding (Duke is private so doesn't disclose) was he would receive payments for five years but don't know the amount. Cutcliffe wanted to keep coaching. He only had two years remaining on contract so doubt it was much.

Shane was always a good coach. He went to other schools and worked his way back to work with his dad. I still think he accepted the book somebody handed him and threw it away assuming it was a joke.

Agreed, thought it was crazy seeing that. Especially for a 22-28 record.

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This is another direct result of Coach Frazier