As the NCAA Baseball Tournament field of 64 is set to be revealed Monday following the conclusion of conference tournaments, Virginia Tech will once again be on the outside looking in. The Hokies, who earlier in the spring looked poised for a postseason berth, experienced another untimely collapse that derailed their season—echoing a frustrating trend from the previous year.
Just weeks ago, projections had the Hokies positioned as high as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. However, a mid-season slump, similar to the one that derailed their 2023 campaign, proved fatal again. Despite early promise, Virginia Tech stumbled down the stretch, culminating in a second-round exit from the ACC Tournament at the hands of Clemson after defeating Stanford in the opening round.
With their season officially over, head coach John Szefc and his team now begin another long offseason. But this isn’t just about one baseball team falling short. Virginia Tech’s failure to reach the NCAA Tournament has become a symbol of broader concerns across its men’s athletics programs.
A Disturbing Trend Across Major Men’s Sports
Virginia Tech has now joined California as the only two Power 4 schools in the country to fail to meet any of the following three basic benchmarks in 2024–25:
- A winning record in football,
- A berth in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament,
- A spot in the NCAA Baseball Tournament.
This trifecta of futility is a glaring indictment of the state of Virginia Tech men’s athletics. For a university with its reputation and resources, such results are simply unacceptable.
Football’s Ongoing Mediocrity
Heading into the 2024 football season, Brent Pry’s third year at the helm was supposed to mark a turning point. The roster was said to be brimming with NFL-caliber talent, and expectations were high for a program revival. Instead, the Hokies limped to another 6–6 record, barely clinching bowl eligibility after a must-win game against Virginia on Thanksgiving Weekend—for the second straight year. In a season that was supposed to offer hope, it instead brought another swing and miss, leaving fans exasperated.
Basketball Still in a Downward Spiral
After an ACC Tournament championship in 2022, men’s basketball has also taken a step backward. The team followed that magical run with back-to-back NIT bids, but the 2024–25 season hit a new low. A combination of insufficient NIL support and a mass roster exodus saw head coach Mike Young’s rebuilt squad finish with a dismal 13–18 record, exiting in the first round of the ACC Tournament after a loss to California. While reports suggest Young will have a stronger NIL package this offseason, there’s no guarantee that will translate to meaningful on-court improvement in 2025–26.
Baseball Misses the Mark—Again
As for the baseball team, they seemed set for redemption early in the season. But after being swept in a crucial late-season ACC series against Pittsburgh, any momentum they had built was lost. Winning just two of those three games might have been enough to secure a postseason spot. Instead, they faded away—again—leaving fans frustrated and disheartened.
A Culture of Complacency?
Despite the across-the-board mediocrity in football, men’s basketball, and baseball, no major changes appear to be on the horizon. Virginia Tech fans are growing increasingly restless as the administration appears to accept subpar results without consequence. The outlook for football remains murky, and the basketball team is full of question marks heading into next season.
It raises the question: If this were the SEC, would this level of underperformance be tolerated? The answer is almost certainly no. In the SEC, consistent failure across major men’s sports would likely have triggered leadership changes or aggressive overhauls. But in Blacksburg, the response has been silence, and the status quo continues.
Virginia Tech fans can only hope that the trend changes soon. But as things stand, the Hokies are heading into another year clouded by uncertainty, average expectations, and no clear end in sight to the mediocrity plaguing their men’s athletic programs.
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