Bill Roth spent decades calling Virginia Tech football before moving to Los Angeles to become UCLA’s play-by-play man in 2015, a post he held for just one year. Now he’s coming back.
That’s according to this report from David Teel at Richmond.com, who notes that Roth won’t call men’s basketball.
The Hokies and their media partner, Learfield IMG College, will announce the move next week prior to Tech’s April 16 spring game, sources said. Roth and former Hokies receiver Eddie Royal are calling the spring game for ACC Network.
An 11-time Virginia Sportscaster of the Year, as voted by his peers in the National Sports Media Association, Roth is not resuming his former roles as Tech’s director of broadcasting and the play-by-play lead for men’s basketball. Learfield is vetting candidates for that dual position, sources said.
Roth replaces the outgoing Jon Laaser, who Teel notes resigned to found a non-profit with his wife. Roth has actually been back at Virginia Tech for a while now, albeit as faculty.
Since moving back East, Roth has also discovered a passion for teaching, as a professor of practice at Virginia Tech. Modeling the program after Syracuse’s Newhouse School of Public Communications, from which he graduated, Roth founded Tech’s sports media and analytics concentration, part of the Department of Communication’s multimedia journalism major.
Sports media and analytics has since become a major under the new School of Communications, and Roth intends to continue recruiting, teaching and mentoring aspiring sports journalists.
Congratulations to Roth on his return.
