The headline of the week will obviously be James Franklin's hiring as the next head coach of Virginia Tech. One thing that likely appealed to Franklin was that the Hokies were willing to significantly increase their financial commitment to football and athletics.
That included the ambitious $229 million funding increase over the next four years which included $120 million to be raised in new donor funding.
The good news for Virginia Tech is that the Hokies are already a decent amount of the way towards achieving that goal.
As I shared on social media earlier today, Virginia Tech has received a financial gift to athletics in the range of $10-20 million that happened during the search for Franklin, with a promise to give more money. The donor has not been revealed at this time but from what this source has told me, this is a new donor for Virginia Tech Athletics specifically. It is unclear if this individual has given to Virginia Tech in the past on the university side or not.
This is obviously a massive gift and statement that Virginia Tech may actually be able to fully live up to the ambitious funding increase that the Board of Visitors voted to move forward with earlier this offseason. There still is a whole lot of fundraising ahead but to get this type of commitment from a singular donor is a great start towards achieving this ambitious goal and providing top tier ACC resources to James Franklin's football program and the entirety of VT Athletics.
We will have more as this story develops.
