Virginia Tech President Timothy Sands sits down with ADU’s Jason Belzer at the 2025 NCAA Convention to offer insight into the Hokie’s approach to the post-House era – including how the athletic department will participate in revenue share while providing a transformational experience for student-athletes across all sport programs. Sands reflects on the long-tail impact of focusing on student-athlete well-being based on surveys conducted by the university: “That [student-athlete] experience really sets you up for a life of purpose and is something we really want to preserve… the House settlement will actually give us the freedom to do more for our student-athletes.”
Sands and Belzer also discuss the revenue gap between the Big Ten and SEC versus the ACC and Big 12 conferences; the economic impact of athletic success on the Virginia Tech and Blacksburg communities; how to evaluate the emergence of private equity in sports; and the possibility of football and basketball breaking off to a more “professionalized” model. The conversation is indexed below for efficient viewing:
0:46 - This is an inflection point for college athletics; how is Virginia Tech preparing itself to compete in this new paradigm and stay to the core of the mission of educating young men and women through a true student-athlete experience?
4:30 - How are you going to close the gap in revenue - from media rights agreements and other avenues - between ACC institutions and institutions in the Big Ten or SEC? How will you do that without detriment to the university as a whole?
7:45 - It's clear you believe Virginia Tech is well-positioned to compete in this new landscape. How are other institutions going to figure out how to approach this?
10:10 - There's been a lot of conversation about private equity entering the industry; what's your overview of something like that? What if someone approaches Virginia Tech with an opportunity to invest - how do you evaluate a decision like that?
12:11 - There's an argument that football and basketball needs to be separated out from the athletic department and developed into a professional model. Is there a place for that? 15:18 - If we're sitting here five years from now, what do you hope college athletics looks like?
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