Virginia Tech to pay Babcock $2.96M to serve 3 years as AD emeritus
Virginia Tech will pay Whit Babcock $2. 96 million over the next three years to serve as athletic director emeritus, about $1 million less than the university would have owed him had officials fired him. Fulfilling an open-records request, Tech released the terms Thursday.
They are as follows and start July 1. Year 1: $1,150,842 in salary, the same as Babcock would have received as AD. Moreover, Babcock on June 30 will receive a $137,500 retention bonus and deferred compensation of $175,000.
Year 2: $900,000 salary. Year 3: $600,000 salary. Tech will continue to provide Babcock, through June 30, 2029, with a Blacksburg Country Club membership, two courtesy cars and six season tickets for football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball.
Babcock, 55, and the university announced last Friday his “retirement” as athletic director after 12 years in the job and the transition to an emeritus role. He has been embattled for much of his tenure’s second half as the Hokies’ football program declined.