to get out of a contract. For example the federal agency I am currently a contractor with had a contract with SAIC in the early part of the decade. In August 2012, SAIC decided it was going to split into 2 public trading companies; SAIC and Leidos. Since the work being performed under the contract was being performed by people working for or contracting with Leidos, the federal agency had to modify the contract to change the novation agreement from SAIC to Leidos. As a result, SAIC has no more responsibilities or liabilities associated with the contract, even when it was issued to SAIC, because Leidos now assumed those responsibilities and liabilities.

What I am suggesting is the GOR is a contract between a conference and the school. Not the conference and a specific department (i.e. the athletic department). If tomorrow President Sands announces tomorrow that the Virginia Tech Athletic Department is splitting away from the school (i.e. become Leidos), then the ACC has 2 options:

1. Maintain the existing contract with Virginia Tech (assuming that Virginia Tech plans to field club teams); or

2. Modify the contract so it is now with the name of the new organization (aka VT's former athletic department). If the ACC tries to modify the contract, then the new organization does have the option to not sign the modification.

The idea of an athletic department breaking away from a school to become a completely independent organization is not a new concept. There are examples out there on how other schools have done it, so it could be done too in the US.

Ownership of the Athletic Department: Can be done a number of ways depending on how it is structured. Think of the Athletic Department as being no different than a company that is either publicly traded or privately owned (i.e. pro teams) since it is no longer affiliated with a non-profit public or private university/college. For example, Universidad de Chile was founded in 1927. However, in 1980 university's rector and president of the club at the time decided to separate the club from the university and created the Professional Football Corporation of the University of Chile (CORFUCH) to manage the football team.

Now if Virginia Tech decides to retain ownership of the Athletic Department and turn part/all of it into a pro organization, then it can follow the business model established by Universidad Católica (Chile). In this particular model, the chairman of the pro organization and the president of the university are the same person. FWIW BYU men's soccer team was a pro team (don't think the players received a salary though and were still required to attend class) and participated in the PDL for 15 years before rejoining the NCAA in 2018. Whereas Universidad Católica (Chile) does pay its players a salary and I don't think have any sort of educational requirement in order to join the club.

Athletic's Department Name: Most likely it will have 2 names; an official name that is used on all legal documents and a "nickname" used for reporting/conversations/etc. For example Club Universidad de Chile is the official name of 1 of the Chilean football teams referenced in a prior post. However, it is more commonly known as Universidad de Chile. If it is decided that the Athletic Department should separate from the school, then the official name could become Virginia Tech Hokies, Inc. and the nickname could become Virginia Tech Hokies, Virginia Tech, or just Hokies. It isn't uncommon for non-US pro teams to have multiple nicknames. For example, Everton's nicknames are The Toffees and The Blues. Chelsea's nicknames are The Blues and The Pensioners. Real Madrid has 4 nicknames; Los Blancos (The Whites), Los Merengues (The Meringues), Los Vikingos (The Vikings), and La Casa Blanca (The White House).

Where the teams will play: It will depend on whether the Athletic Department is still connect or independent to Virginia Tech. If the Athletic Department is now Virginia Tech Hokies, Inc., then Virginia Tech Hokies, Inc. could either lease the current facilities from the school, buy the current facilities from the school, or build brand new facilities in a different location. For example, Universidad de Chile currently plays their home games at Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos which is not located on the grounds of the university. Basically no different than what UCLA, Miami, and USF currently experience.

Regardless whether the GORs are expired or not, you can expect the NCAA, conferences, and individual schools to sue the schools that decide to break away from the group. It would be no different than when the Big East schools (including Virginia Tech) decided to sue Miami, BC, and Syracuse because they were leaving the Big East to join the ACC.
[Post edited by VTHokie2000 at 05/21/2019 4:50PM]