Very nice dinner at the Blacksburg Sports Club Wednesday night featuring Whit Babcock and Jon Laaser as guest speakers. It was a great job by the Sports Club folks putting on a very nice event.

Whit did not indicate that anything he said was confidential (ala Jim Cavanaugh in the old days) so here’s a couple of highlights from my perspective.

Whit said he was very happy at VT, that he had never looked for another job, and he hoped to retire in Blacksburg.

He felt like we had all 22 sports trending in the right direction and thought our best chance to win a National Title was wrestling (although we have to get by Penn State), softball, men’s swimming, women’s golf, men’s soccer, and lacrosse.

He didn’t see any negative to the Alliance.

During the Q&A, I asked about softball (shocker) and he said an extension for Coach D’Amour was in process and agreed he had done a great job (“these things just take time”).

I brought up charging for admission and his comment was that once we paid the Rhino staff, he wasn’t sure we would make a profit. I brought up what I saw at Arizona State where they apparently sell seats and then put a softball with the patron’s name on specific seats, but Whit’s pushback was that we would have to pay ushers to enforce that. I don’t necessarily agree, but what do I know.

We spoke after the meeting and he told me he appreciated the support and would have the contract done with Coach D’Amour “before the season started.” I don’t exactly know what that means, but I was glad to hear something was in process.