Virginia Tech wants to spend more on athletics. Some of that would come from making students pay more.

Suppose I were to tell you that Salem and Lynchburg were imposing a $1,000-per-person tax on all their residents to pay for the cities’ minor league baseball teams?

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Or that Roanoke and Wythe County had likewise enacted a $1,000-per-person tax to pay for their minor league hockey teams?

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I suspect the only question would be how long the lines would be at the next council or board of supervisors meeting to sign up to protest. Well, maybe not in Salem; Salem does love its sports.

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Regardless, that’s the closest analogy to what the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors will be asked to do Tuesday: raise the mandatory student fees that go to intercollegiate athletics so that Virginia Tech can more effectively compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference.