The Future is Now: Brian White's Vision for Bringing Championships to Blacksburg
New Virginia Tech AD Brian White was born into college athletics and has dedicated his life to it. His dad, Kevin, served as the Athletic Director at Duke from 2008 to 2021. His brother, Danny, currently serves as the Athletic Director at Tennessee. Before arriving at Virginia Tech to succeed Whit Babcock as the leader of Virginia Tech’s Athletic Department, White accumulated years of experience in athletics administration. He most recently served as Florida Atlantic’s AD for almost nine years, helping lead the Owls to 10 conference championships and an incredible run to the Final Four by the men’s basketball team. During his time at FAU, White also drove major expansion on the business side of the athletic department. He broke department records for philanthropic support, bringing in over $26 million in donations in just one year. He also negotiated a major stadium naming-rights deal and oversaw FAU’s transition to the American Conference. During his introductory press conference on Wednesday, White said his father encouraged him to pursue the revenue-generation side of college sports, calling it the best path for his generation. That was some sound advice, because White’s business experience is what allowed him to stick out from the pool of 30 candidates that applied to Virginia Tech, and it will be the emphasis of his role in Blacksburg.
“We’ve got world-class student athletes and world-class coaches in place right here, and I want to help them win championships”
Virginia Tech Athletic Director Brian White
Sons of Saturday Virginia Tech
@SonsofSatVT
White on how prepared he feels to step up to a Power 4 Athletic Director job:
Outgoing President Tim Sands referred to athletics as the “front porch” of Virginia Tech. He says that a successful athletic department is important to growing the national brand of the university, and has a major impact on alumni experiences and current student attachment to the school. Brian White’s job is to now grow that front porch and bring more national attention and revenue into the athletic department. So how is he going to do it? The Chair of the Athletic Director Search Committee, Lynne Doughtie, says White brought some creative ideas to the table during the interview process. Naming rights for different facilities and corporate sponsorship logos on jerseys were just a couple that she mentioned. Fundamentally, however, White says that driving revenue comes down to the infrastructure that is in place, everything from the staff, the metrics, and the accountability mechanisms. White also has a unique revenue growth tool at his disposal with the newly formed Hokie Ventures group. The non-profit corporation was approved this month to help support the long-term business growth and competitiveness of Virginia Tech Athletics. White thinks Hokie Ventures can be a “huge asset” to the department in finding new revenue streams, while also pooling the current ones to decide how to best utilize the resources VT already has. White also understands that an organization like Hokie Ventures is unique, and he has already reached out to several of his colleagues who work at institutions with similar corporations, so he can begin to outline a strategy of how to best utilize Hokie Ventures.
President Sands remarked on Wednesday that "We're in the middle of a lot of momentum as a university, and with athletics." Sands pointed to the Invest to Win platform, the hiring of James Franklin, and Hokie Ventures as proof of that momentum. Brian White will now be tasked with turning that hype into revenue, something he did well at FAU. In the three years following the Owls' Final Four run in 2023, FAU saw record fundraising contributions and attendance across its athletic programs. White did a good job capitalizing on the moment in Boca Raton, and will now have to do it again in Blacksburg.
Another important aspect of becoming a successful Athletic Director is having a strong relationship and alignment with the coaches who run the individual programs. Right now at Virginia Tech, no coach is more important to the success of the department than James Franklin, who has repeatedly preached the importance of alignment during his early days in Blacksburg. On Wednesday, Franklin again stressed that to win at the highest level in college athletics, everyone in the department and the university needs to be “pulling the rope in the same direction.” Franklin was on the search committee that hired White, and told us that he reached out to several of his connections to learn more about the AD candidates outside of who they were in an interview. Franklin says it was important to him to hear from people who had worked with these candidates to get the full story and feel confident about the important hire they were about to make. Franklin also pointed to White’s lengthy tenure at FAU as a defining feature of his resume. His almost nine years in Florida allowed Virginia Tech to evaluate the impact White’s decisions had on the university over a sustained period of time, both successes and failures.
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James Franklin on his role on the Search Committee and what drew the committee to Brian White:
Despite only having a couple of days on the job, Brian White seems to already understand what makes Virginia Tech special. He told us that he is “so jacked up for Enter Sandman” and wants to keep the aspects of the fan experience that make gamedays in Blacksburg great, while also improving what needs to be fixed. It was the strength and passion of the Hokies’ fanbase that initially attracted White to this job, saying that people across the country recognize how amazing Hokie Nation is. White said the other thing that brought him to Virginia Tech was the opportunity to work with James Franklin, and gave Hokie Nation a shot of hope and optimism for the future of the football program:
“He [James Franklin] is going to win a National Championship at Virginia Tech, and I want to be a part of it, and I want to help him do it, and that fires me up.”
It’s safe to say that White speaks for all of Hokie Nation with that last part. Everyone is riding the wave of momentum Virginia Tech is experiencing right now. White comes into a university that is investing heavily in athletics and is preparing itself for the dynamic future of college sports. Now, he will be asked to shepherd that growth with creativity and revenue generation, and ultimately bring the first national championship in school history to Blacksburg.
