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They can get that from a bank though. PE is usually after an ownership stake, not just lending, and they get or at least seek, a higher percentage as a result.
USF did something recently where they went to PE to finance some of their improvements (for their stadium) and the terms were worse than what they would have gotten from a bank.
The whole thing stinks of corruption.
https://www.billfarleyphd.com/p/private-capital-stings-the-university
To be fair, bringing Kirby Smart and his entire staff, Cignetti and his entire, or Day and his entire staff doesn't guarantee anything either.
Coaching changes, especially when the HC is replaced is a huge question mark.
The questions around Pry are will return to his DC days success-wise or his HC days and what impact will his retention as DC have on the players who played this year who are returning?
The questions around Howle are, how much did he learn/develop at PSU and who can he bring with him?
We won't know the answer to 3 of those 4 questions until a year (or more) from now.
I think "we" wanted somebody who has a body of work proving their ability to be a high quality OC or DC in the P4.
However, all of those people are getting hired as HCs in G5 or are solidly locked in on P4 top tier teams.
Amazing. I do not remember this at all.
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Wikipedia already has him as our OC...
ITT: everybody we hire is terrible
Who are the hires we should be getting instead? What makes them ideal candidates?
I mostly agree with you.
I talk myself back from the ledge like this. Bowen (OC) likely would have done way better with better players. Pry (DC) demonstrably did much better with better players (at Penn State).
So, all else being equal, if we had top 30 recruiting classes we probably win 9 games instead of 6.
Franklin has already shown that he can get better players than we've had in a decade.
So with Franklin's recruiting, we probably will manage 9 to 10 wins more often than not even with (perhaps?) less than stellar coordinators. They're not going to be playoff caliber coordinators, in all likelihood, but if they make VT competitive in the ACC again that's a big improvement from where we've been.
Personally I want more. I want VT to be dominant enough in the ACC that they get a seat at the big boy table in 2030. I'm not certain these are the coaches to get us there but I'm at least hopeful that Franklin will drag us into the modern era and elevate our floor considerably. That's just going to have to be good enough. I'll take anything that's better than what we've had the last 10 years. Beggers can't be choosers. Or, so I've been told.
The most depressing part of that video was seeing us sitting at #9 in both of the rankings shown.
I'm not necessarily saying he's not good. But there's a chance he's pyrite. Penn States defense was good before he got there and better after he left. He didn't ruin it, in fairness. But with Penn states recruiting and big ten opponents (not known for explosive offense) the rankings might be misleading. That's all I'm saying. I hope he's great. I don't know that he is.
If they want to complain about the ACC it should be about their complete mishandling of the tiebreakers
Note that the ACC tiebreaker is the same as the other P4 conferences. It's just that the ACC sucks so bad that our championship game had a 7-5 team due to poor OOC performance.
Roanoke Times says it's a done deal.
Just read in the Roanoke Times that it's done.
Except Notre Dame on all of social media is trying to flip the narrative of that story by saying they saved the ACC's season and all of College Football. They insist that without them the conference would have folded during Covid. 1000s of examples of this fallacy all over today. They have a Touchdown God Complex about their self importance.
Notre Dame saved college football in 2020. The SEC and Big 12 were going to play, but the Big Ten was pressuring the ACC and others to stay covid closed. ND pushing the ACC to play, and joining for that year, meant just about all the real programs were playing. Big Ten relented.— Adam Mathews (@MathewsforOhio) December 5, 2025
Nd literally saved acc football for the Covid year, maybe check your ego and look at this through facts.... https://t.co/wLBKMCJO2y— Andy Rice (@HoltzRice88) December 9, 2025
What is hilarious is that it was Notre Dame that saved the ACC, in 2020, by agreeing to play in the conference for one year during Covid.It is Notre Dame's affiliation with the ACC that poors money into their cofferrs that keeps them afloat. So, go ahead @theACC and break the...— Dave Tuskey (@DTuskey) December 2, 2025
I think the memo is more of a CYA ahead of legal action. Notre Dame saved the ACC during covid. ACC needs ND & not vice versa. ND can and will continue to sign NC football scheduling agreements. People dont like to hear it but they have clout/make $ for self and others— fishwitted (@fishwitted) December 9, 2025
The upside sounds like they give X dollars now, and get more than X back, by collecting a percentage over a time.
Utah's getting a huge chunk of $$$ upfront, but they're going to have to pay the PE firm out of their normal earnings over time.
I don't think it's any more complicated than that.
Yup. And regardless every fucking p4 school should refuse to schedule them so that they will never be ranked again and get a playoff bid.
I'm at risk of being a doomer but I hate this too.
He's had one year of experience, and nothing from PSUs QB play last year suggests he's going places.
Not enough of them understand the implications of a deal like this.. so they read this
$500M Utah Football FIRST
which translated to....
💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 💥
OMFG WE ARE SO FIRE
Sooo Tyler Bowen. Which is fine, Bowen did okay (when he was forced to adjust his offense after losing the first 3-4 games each year).
Bowen never had an O line either, which will hopefully be fixed. Can we get some of the elite skill players Bowen had for his best offenses? If Tuten ran behind a real line 2024 is a top offense in the country.
My point is success isn't impossible. But it's also not at all guaranteed. And this probably isn't my favorite strategy of getting there
Okay but when we were looking for a new coach, was the most likely path of success to you "juice up the Pry thing to the max".
It's a fair question, because you can actually make a case for it. We had the team to go 12-0 in 2024, we really weren't that far from it, in fact I believe a much better coach probably would've got there. I don't think it's sustainable to evaluate the portal that well but this is the kind of peaks that can be reached with this strategy.
In my opinion under Pry, the issues went down to the foundation. What Tech has said is basically, no the design is correct, we're just going to put another foreman in charge and use more money to buy better materials and better workers. And we're even bringing the old foreman back to run part of the project. I question with that strategy, how much different is your project going to look from the last one? What exactly are the improvements being made that will make it successful? Was it just the quality of player and leadership that was the issue last time? 2024 seems to cut against that.
Yet they were ranked in the Top 25 until week 12 when they lost their 3rd game. This is also the same week that Tennessee moved up to 2 spots to #23 with a 6-3 record (one of only two 3 loss teams in the AP poll). This is also the week that BYU dropped 5 spots to #12 at 8-1 after their only loss, which was to Texas Tech at #6 and 9-1.
There looks to be bias on my end, though I'm admittingly looking for it. That was my last comment on the subject I promise.
How does PE get upside out of college sports, specifically and especially when they're dealing with one program? Are they getting a future share of revenue that they can help improve somehow? This isn't a conventional business (and even there PE often time completely fucking sucks). Are they going to aggregate media deals, leverage volume to sell more concessions at a better margin? Where is the upside?
Agree. Top 10 D 3 out of 5 years is not something we have seen in a while.
Just another reminder of how bad the ACC leadership was. Sure, help them out but in exchange they join as a full sports member. That should have been the deal. But no, we do them a solid and get fuckall out of it.
What were they going to do, leave sooner for another conference?
Roddy Jones (who is one of the few associated with ESPN that consistently makes salient points) noted that in 2020 Covid Year, the ACC did Notre Dame a huge solid by making them temporary full member. Otherwise, ND would have been left trying to piece together a schedule as an Independent.
Thanks for nothing, I suppose is the message.
Long and short, the ACC needs to figure out what actual financial value ND has for them. The main Revenue sports are FB and MBB --they are essentially a parasite member in Football and their MBB Program is in the dumps at this point. I say jettison them and let them see if anyone else is willing to let them make a sweetheart deal like the ACC has.
I think the biggest flaw in the Bowen comparison is that Franklin has built two successful programs and knows what it takes and the type of assistants he needs and how to get the most out of them.
Pry watched Franklin do that but could not replicate it.
Until proven otherwise, I'll choose to trust Franklin's judgement