How much to become Cinderella? Virginia’s March Madness run fueled in part by Reddit co-founder gift

Playing the role of fairy godmother in this story would be Reddit co-founder, multimillionaire and 2005 Virginia alum Alexis Ohanian. The Hoos have been the biggest surprise of the postseason — the first team to advance from the play-in round to the Sweet 16, and the only team left standing that was truly a bubble team on Selection Sunday. And yet, here they are, still dancing — with a matchup against No.

3 seed TCU on Saturday — and the prime example of what it looks like to build a program, and build quickly no less, during the NIL era. Last season, Virginia was on the outside looking in during March Madness, its seventh year in a row without an NCAA Tournament bid. Coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton was in her third year and slowly rebuilding the program after taking over a five-win program.

The Hoos finished 2024-25 with a winning record for the first time in seven years, so there were signs of life, and athletic director Carla Williams was confident in the program’s direction. But in a college sports landscape where college football rules all — and with a Cavaliers football program in the middle of a rebuild as well (the Hoos won their first bowl game since 2018 this past season) — there’s only so much money to go around. Outside investment is key.

In today’s age, programs need catalysts — preferably one with many zeroes at the end. For Virginia women’s basketball, that was Ohanian, who poured lighter fluid all over this program in late 2024 with a “transformational” multiyear gift — per Sportico, it was more than three-quarters of a million dollars every year over the next four years — to the women’s basketball program intended to help “boost recruiting and retention. ” “It’s time to bring the nation’s best hoops talent to Charlottesville and win some championships in the next four years,” Ohanian said in a statement released by the university after his donation.