Report: Virginia Tech Targeting FAU's Brian White for Athletic Director

White has been the Athletic Director at FAU since 2018.

Brian White, Vice president and director of athletics at FAU speaks at The Palm Beach Post's NIL, Name, Image and Likeness forum in West Palm Beach, Florida, on August 27, 2025. | GREG LOVETT/PALM BEACH POST / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Virginia Tech has set its sights on Florida Atlantic athletic director Brian White as it searches for a successor to outgoing AD Whit Babcock, according to Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger on Monday evening. A deal has not been finalized, but discussions are trending toward White landing in Blacksburg.

Virginia Tech is targeting FAU AD Brian White in its search for an athletic director, sources tell @YahooSports. A deal has not been finalized, but discussions are trending that direction.

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) June 22, 2026

What does this mean for Virginia Tech?

Babcock announced in April that he would transition out of the director of athletics role effective June 30, 2026, capping a 12-year tenure that reshaped the department. Virginia Tech formed an eight-member search committee on May 28, chaired by Lynne Doughtie, the retired chairman and CEO of KPMG LLP and a 1985 Virginia Tech graduate. Babcock will remain with the university as Athletics Director Emeritus beginning July 1, serving in an advisory capacity to the new AD and incoming university president.

White has spent the last eight years building Florida Atlantic into one of the more surprising programs in college sports. In September 2024, FAU interim president Stacy Volnick announced a contract extension for White through 2029, a sign of how much the university valued what he had built. Since arriving in Boca Raton, he has guided the Owls to the American Athletic Conference, seen men's basketball make consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and shepherded a Final Four run in 2022-23.

White was recognized on Sports Business Journal's 40 Under 40 list in June 2023. The school also saw increases in fundraising, ticket sales, corporate partnerships and facility improvement during his tenure.

The family name carries weight in this industry. White is one of five children of Kevin White, whose stops as an athletic director include Notre Dame and Duke. His brother Danny is the AD at Tennessee, and his oldest brother Mike is the head men's basketball coach at Georgia.

It's a bloodline so embedded in college athletics that the family has been called the first family of college sports. That network, and the institutional knowledge that comes with it, is not nothing when a school is trying to navigate conference realignment, build out a new business structure or close a major donor.

Virginia Tech's timing is urgent. Babcock said as much when speaking with reporters in early May: "The AD, certainly, you have to get an AD in before football season starts." The Hokies open the 2026 season under first-year head coach James Franklin, and whoever takes the job will be walking into one of the higher-stakes environments in the ACC. Getting that person in place before August matters.

A deal has not been finalized and no announcement is imminent, per Dellenger's report. But the direction of the conversations suggests Virginia Tech has found its candidate.