Last week we talked about “Fuente’s people” and all the roles they encompass. Now we’ll look at the many people who make up the non-sporting staff of Virginia Tech’s athletic department, starting with a big picture view of operations. For folks unfamiliar with the VT athletic department, this will help all the offices and roles make more sense as we move on. For folks more familiar with the VT athletic department, it’ll give us a base to dig into issues that have come up, particularly those connected to saret’s recent conversation with Virginia Tech officials, which many of you have kept up with.

Unwinding the Athletic Department

Even when you remove coaches and their support staff, athletic departments are big and complicated. From leaders like Whit Babcock down to interns and volunteers, departments can include hundreds of people, and revenues at blue-blood programs have topped $200 million. At the other end of the spectrum, even small DIII departments can have twenty or more non-coaching staff to keep things running.

The big athletic departments are big because donors, media broadcasters, and general fans are willing to part with a lot of money. But these departments might be more complicated than the money would indicate because their operations are so diverse. Where the academic side of a school concentrates nearly all its resources directly on students, the athletic department has a split constituency of student-athletes and sports fans. Athletic departments must field teams, support athletes’ academic progress, maintain a small town’s worth of buildings, sell tickets, provide televised programming, raise money, and a million other things.

A sampling of department staff could include strength coaches, academic advisors, doctors, and others. Some indirectly assist football, but for many of them working with the football team is the sole demand of their job. Beyond these roles that work directly with athletes are all the usual personnel you’ll find at any big office or business, along with sport-specialized staff. Most of these people you would only come across if you read media guides cover-to-cover, and some you wouldn’t find even then. To be honest, athletic departments around the country might prefer it that way. With that said, as coaches and administrators look to press every advantage, even less-known roles are seeing growth.

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