Virginia-Virginia Tech rivalry - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Virginia–Virginia Tech rivalry is an American college rivalry

College rivalry

Pairs of schools, colleges and universities, especially when they are close to each other either geographically or in their areas of specialization, often establish a college rivalry with each other over the years. This rivalry can extend to both academics and athletics, the latter being typically...

that exists between the Virginia Cavaliers

Virginia Cavaliers

The Virginia Cavaliers, also known as Wahoos or Hoos, are the athletic teams officially representing the University of Virginia in college sports. The Cavaliers compete in 25 NCAA Division I varsity sports and are members of the Atlantic Coast Conference...

sports teams of the University of Virginia

University of Virginia

The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...

and the Virginia Tech Hokies

Virginia Tech Hokies

The Virginia Tech Hokies are the athletic teams officially representing Virginia Tech in college sports. The Hokies participate in the NCAA's Division I Atlantic Coast Conference in 19 varsity sports. Virginia Tech's men's sports are football, basketball, baseball, cross country, golf, soccer,...

sports teams of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, popularly known as Virginia Tech , is a public land-grant university with the main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia with other research and educational centers throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and internationally.Founded in...

. Both universities are members of the Atlantic Coast Conference

Atlantic Coast Conference

The Atlantic Coast Conference is a collegiate athletic league in the United States. Founded in 1953 in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC sanctions competition in twenty-five sports in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association for its twelve member universities...

(ACC). In ACC sports that have divisional play, such as college baseball

College baseball

College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. Compared to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a less significant contribution to cultivating professional players, as the minor leagues primarily...

and college football

College football

College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...

, both compete in the ACC's Coastal Division.

In the 2005-06 and 2006-07 school years, the program-wide rivalry was called the Commonwealth Challenge. The Cavaliers won both years of the Challenge but future sponsorship was not sought out of respect for the Virginia Tech massacre

Virginia Tech massacre

The Virginia Tech massacre was a school shooting that took place on April 16, 2007, on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. In two separate attacks, approximately two hours apart, the perpetrator, Seung-Hui Cho, killed 32 people...

. Virginia athletic director Craig Littlepage stated at the time that "now is not the time to be talking about bragging rights."

All-time and ACC series results

Sport	All-time series record	ACC series record	Last result	Next meeting
Baseball College baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. Compared to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a less significant contribution to cultivating professional players, as the minor leagues primarily...	UVA leads 88–77	UVA leads 16–3	UVA won 10-2 on April 4, 2011	TBD @ UVA
Men's Basketball College basketball College basketball most often refers to the USA basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association . Basketball in the NCAA is divided into three divisions: Division I, Division II and Division III....	UVA leads 81–52	UVA leads 8–7	UVA won 61-54 on February 20, 2011	1-22-12 @ UVA
Women's Basketball Women's basketball Women's basketball is one of the few women's sports that developed in tandem with its men's counterpart. It became popular, spreading from the east coast of the United States to the west coast , in large part via women's colleges...	UVA leads 37–8	UVA leads 13–2	UVA won 73-71 (OT) on February 27, 2011	1-12-12 @ UVA
Football College football College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities... (Commonwealth Cup Commonwealth Cup The Commonwealth Cup is an American college football rivalry game played between the Virginia Cavaliers football team of the University of Virginia and the Virginia Tech Hokies football team of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Typically, this series is played on a Saturday... )	VT leads 51–37–5	VT leads 8–0	VT won 38-0 on November 26, 2011	TBD @ VT
Women's Lacrosse College lacrosse College lacrosse refers to lacrosse played by student athletes at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. In both countries, men's field lacrosse and women's lacrosse are played in both the varsity and club levels... †	UVA leads 16–0	UVA leads 8–0	UVA won 12-10 on April 6, 2011	TBD @ VT
Men's Soccer College soccer College soccer is a term used to describe association football played by teams who are operated by colleges and universities as opposed to a professional league operated for exclusively financial purposes...	UVA leads 35–4–2^	UVA leads 4–2–2	Tied 0-0 on October 21, 2011	TBD @ UVA
Women's Soccer Women's football (soccer) Women's association football has been played for many decades, but was associated with charity games and physical exercise in the past before the breakthrough of organized women's association football came in the 1970s. Before the 1970s, football was basically seen as a men's game...	UVA leads 10–2–1	UVA leads 6–2–1	UVA won 4-0 on October 20, 2011	TBD @ VT
Softball College softball College softball is softball as played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education, predominantly in the United States. College softball is normally played by women at the intercollegiate level, whereas college baseball is normally played by men.As with other intercollegiate...	VT leads 23–18	VT leads 12–9	UVA won 6-5 on April 16, 2011	TBD @ VT
Men's Swimming/Diving Swimming (sport) Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...	UVA leads 25–1	UVA leads 7–0	UVA won 939.5-617 on October 13, 2010	1-11-12 @ UVA
Women's Swimming/Diving Swimming (sport) Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...	UVA leads 24–1	UVA leads 7–0	UVA won 968-619 on October 13, 2010	1-11-12 @ UVA
Volleyball Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...	UVA leads 30–28	VT leads 8–7	VT won 3-2 on November 25, 2011	TBD
TOTAL	UVA leads 401–247–8	UVA leads 85–44–3

Series led and games won by Virginia are shaded ██. Series led and games won by Virginia Tech shaded ██.

† Virginia Tech does not field a varsity men's lacrosse team.

^ Hokiesports.com has results for men's soccer back to only 1975, but Virginiasports.com has a record of results going back to 1960.

Commonwealth Challenge

Now in the same conference, the two schools agreed to face off in a Commonwealth Challenge across all sports in 2005. The Challenge continued through 2007, with the Cavaliers winning both years of the competition. It was discontinued "in the short term" after the Virginia Tech massacre

Virginia Tech massacre

, although a score was tallied on February 21, 2008 by the Roanoke Times using the scoring system of the previous two years. UVA would have been leading the 2007–2008 competition as of that date, 7 to 6.

Year	Result
2005–2006	UVA won 14½–7½
2006–2007	UVA won 14–8

Challenges won by Virginia are shaded ██.

History

The Virginia/Virginia Tech rivalry has existed since the last 1800s, but has only come to preeminence in the last twenty years. Traditionally, Virginia's primary rival has been the Tar Heels

North Carolina Tar Heels football

The North Carolina Tar Heels football team represents the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in collegiate level football. In Carolina’s first 121 seasons of football competition, the Tar Heels have compiled a record of 646–488–54, a winning percentage of .566...

of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...

- known as the South's Oldest Rivalry

South's Oldest Rivalry

The South's Oldest Rivalry is an American college football rivalry game played annually by the Virginia Cavaliers football team of the University of Virginia and the North Carolina Tar Heels football team of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill...

. Virginia Tech's rival was the Virginia Military Institute

Virginia Military Institute

The Virginia Military Institute , located in Lexington, Virginia, is the oldest state-supported military college and one of six senior military colleges in the United States. Unlike any other military college in the United States—and in keeping with its founding principles—all VMI students are...

, with whom they shared a military tradition and similar acronyms (VMI vs. VPI).

The UVA/Virginia Tech rivalry began in earnest in 1899, a year that saw Virginia take on northern powerhouses Penn and Michigan. Virginia's final game of the season was against a squad in the middle of a disastrous first full season, a fledgling land grant school in Blacksburg, Virginia, that had only just progressed into a four-year campus- Virginia Polytechnic Institute. That game, a 28-0 decision for Virginia, was a footnote in their 4-3-2 season that year- but for at least one Virginia Tech student, it was much more.

Hunter Carpenter

Hunter Carpenter

Caius Hunter Carpenter was an American football player halfback.-Early life:Carpenter was born in Louisa County, Virginia. He attended Clifton Forge High School in Clifton Forge, Virginia.-College career:...

, a 15-year old from Clifton Forge, enrolled at Virginia Tech in 1898. Though he had never touched a football prior to enrolling at Tech, following the blowout of the 1899 game, he became a man possessed by one thing- beating Virginia in football. However, after five years of college, Hunter Carpenter graduated from Virginia Tech without achieving his goal. Infuriated, he transferred to the University of North Carolina. "I just want to beat the University of Virginia," Carpenter was quoted as saying by the Associated Press, in reference to his move to Chapel Hill. However, as a standout on the Tar Heels' football squad, he again failed to win against Virginia for two years in a row.

Carpenter returned to Virginia Tech in 1905 for a last shot at beating Virginia. Going into the 1905 game, Tech was 0-8 against UVA by a cumulative 170-5 score. The Cavalier Daily, student paper of the University of Virginia, ran a story outlining Carpenter's motives and move from Virginia Tech to the University of North Carolina, and then back to Virginia Tech. Virginia accused Carpenter of being a "professional" player- as eligibilty rules were much looser back then, it was not uncommon in those days for players in their mid to late twenties to travel from school to school, loaning their services out to football powerhouses such as Ohio State and Alabama to give them an edge in rivalry games.

Carpenter signed a sworn affidavit that he was an amateur player and, against a backdrop of recrimination, the game was finally played. Carpenter scored, and Tech took an 11-0 lead. Carpenter was ejected midway through the game for throwing the ball at the face of a Virginia defender, but stayed on the sidelines to watch as neither team was able to score against each other. Carpenter left immediately after the game and moved to Middleton, New York, never to return to the Commonwealth. The University of Virginia refused to play Virginia Tech again until 1923.

Intensity

Some from outside the state are surprised to learn that the rivalry can be a bitter one; analogies have been made to the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears

Bears-Packers rivalry

The Bears–Packers or the Packers–Bears rivalry is a sports rivalry between two professional American football teams in the National Football League , the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers...

rivalry, in both it's intensity and scope. Former Ohio State

Ohio State Buckeyes football

The Ohio State Buckeyes football team is an intercollegiate varsity sports team of The Ohio State University. The team is a member of the Big Ten Conference of the NCAA, playing at the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, formerly Division I-A, level. The team nickname is derived from the state...

quarterback and football analyst Kirk Herbstreit

Kirk Herbstreit

Kirk Herbstreit is an Emmy Award-winning analyst for ESPN's College GameDay, a television program covering college football and a provider of color commentary during college football games on ESPN and ABC. He appears annually as a commentator in EA Sports' NCAA Football. He was a quarterback on...

said in 2004 that he "never realized how much those people hate each other." He went on to say "when I was down in Blacksburg

Blacksburg, Virginia

Blacksburg is an incorporated town located in Montgomery County, Virginia, United States, with a population of 42,620 at the 2010 census. Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and Radford are the three principal jurisdictions of the Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford Metropolitan Statistical Area which...

, I said some nice things about Al Groh

Al Groh

Al Groh is the defensive coordinator of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team. He is also a former head coach of the University of Virginia football team, a former head coach of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons football team and the former head coach of the New York Jets of the NFL...

and it was like I had turned my back on them." This is particularly remarkable considering that the University of Virginia has been a long-time advocate for their in-state rival, from advocating for their admission into the ACC, to defending them from the NCAA's attempt to banish Virginia Tech from all collegiate sports in 1951.

However, many of the teams' respective fans are cordial to each other, and it is not uncommon to see Virginia fans rooting for Virginia Tech teams (and vice versa) when they are competing against teams from outside the Commonwealth. Many families have children who attend both schools, and the two schools often hold sorority, fraternity, and other social functions together. Yard flags, mailboxes, and vehicle decals displaying the colors and logos of both teams are common, even in each team's home territory.

Virginia Tech joins ACC

Despite the intensity of the rivalry, Virginia Tech owes its membership in the ACC to the University of Virginia.

The Atlantic Coast Conference

Atlantic Coast Conference

initially planned to add Boston College

Boston College

Boston College is a private Jesuit research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA. The main campus is bisected by the border between the cities of Boston and Newton. It has 9,200 full-time undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. Its name reflects its early...

, Miami

University of Miami

The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...

, and Syracuse

Syracuse University

Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...

to the conference lineup. Talks with Syracuse stalled as Jim Boeheim

Jim Boeheim

James Arthur "Jim" Boeheim is the head coach of the men's basketball team at Syracuse University. Boeheim has guided the Orange to eight Big East regular season championships, five Big East Tournament championships, and 28 NCAA Tournament appearances, including three appearances in the national...

vocalized his opposition to the move, and Duke, UNC, and Virginia consistently voted against adding the Orange. When it became obvious that Syracuse lacked the necessary seven votes, U.Va. President John T. Casteen III

John T. Casteen III

John Thomas Casteen III is an American educator. He has served as Professor of English and President of the University of Virginia from 1990 through 2010.-Early life and career:...

took the opportunity to suggest the ACC consider Virginia Tech on June 18, 2003. Duke and UNC voted against the Hokies, but with Casteen's support Virginia Tech was invited to the conference with 7 out of 9 votes. Miami and Virginia Tech joined the ACC in 2004, with Boston College joining in 2005.

The primary significance of this development to the rivalry was that the athletic teams from the two schools would now be mandated to play every year. For instance, the men's college soccer

College soccer

College soccer is a term used to describe association football played by teams who are operated by colleges and universities as opposed to a professional league operated for exclusively financial purposes...

teams did not face each other in any of the four seasons between 2000 and 2003. They have since met every year after Virginia Tech became a conference member in 2004. Additionally, in some sports where there was already an agreement to play each other on an annual basis, the teams might now play more than once. For instance, the men's college basketball

College basketball

College basketball most often refers to the USA basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association . Basketball in the NCAA is divided into three divisions: Division I, Division II and Division III....

teams had played each other annually since the 1934-35 season but not faced each other twice in the same season since 1983-84. Starting with the 2004-05 season, the teams have played at least twice each year, and in 2005-06 the teams met for a third time in the ACC Tournament.

Impact of the Virginia Tech Massacre

Many fans on both sides of the rivalry have reported a lessening of hostilities between the two universities while maintaining the same intensity of the rivalry in the wake of the Virginia Tech Massacre

Virginia Tech massacre

. According to The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

"students in both camps are more apt to think of themselves as simply Virginians." UVa students were amongst the first university students to lend support to the comrades at Virginia Tech in the wake of the shootings. Likewise, the connections between the two university's populations are often very close. Prior to the 2007 football contest in Charlottesville both college's bands participated in a joint performance. However, the intensity of the rivalry was still as spirited as ever, with both sides cheering passionately for their own team as a berth to the ACC Championship game was on the line.
U-Va.'s student newspaper reported that students in Charlottesville were even sporting Hokie sweatshirts on occasion in observance of the tragedy. The University's Z Society

Z Society

The Z Society is a philanthropic organization that was founded at the University of Virginia in 1892. It comprises outstanding student leaders who give time, talent, and financial contributions to groups and individuals that exemplify the spirit of the society and uphold the ideals of the university...

went so far as unveiling a 65' x 120' Virginia Pride flag featuring both UVA and VT logos on it during the annual football game, and it was noted that the two fan bases had never been so close as they were after the shootings.

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