Being the men’s basketball coach at Virginia Commonwealth University means holding a position that comes with great attention and the potential to move on to more prestigious coaching jobs.

It also comes with a major caveat: coming back if you decide to leave.

V.C.U. hired Jeff Capel, who currently coaches at Pittsburgh, to his first Division I head coaching position in 2002. Part of his contract with V.C.U. was a stipulation that Capel would have to play the Rams in a home-and-home series if he ever left for a higher-profile coaching position. The same provision existed for Capel’s successor — current Dayton Coach Anthony Grant — when he left V.C.U. for Alabama in 2009. Texas Coach Shaka Smart had a similar condition when he left V.C.U. for the Longhorns in 2015.

On Wednesday night, Louisiana State Coach Will Wade returned to Richmond, Va., to face V.C.U. two years after leaving the Rams for Baton Rouge. His 23rd-ranked team lost to V.C.U., 84-82.

“I’ve spent more time at V.C.U. than I have anywhere else in my coaching career. I was there for six years — two years as a head coach and four years as an assistant,” Wade said. “It’s going very be very odd to be on the other bench.”