The Virginiaâ€"Virginia Tech rivalry is an American college rivalry that exists between the Virginia Cavaliers sports teams of the University of Virginia and the Virginia Tech Hokies sports teams of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly known as Virginia Tech. The Cavaliers and Hokies have a program-wide rivalry called the Commonwealth Clash, which UVA leads 2â€"1 as of 2017. The schools had a similar competition earlier in the 2000s called the Commonwealth Challenge, which UVA won 2â€"0. While Virginia leads the rivalry series in the majority of sports, Virginia Tech has won a record 14 straight Commonwealth Cups in football as of 2017 and won their first Commonwealth Clash via a tiebreaker in 2017.
Both universities are members of the Atlantic Coast Conference. In sports that have divisional play, such as college baseball and college football, both compete in the Coastal division of the conference. Virginia and Virginia Tech had actually been conference rivals in the past prior to the latter joining the ACC. The two schools were in the South Atlantic Intercollegiate Athletic Association together from 1907â€"22, then in the Southern Conference from 1922â€"37.
The Cavaliers were Independent from 1937 to 1953. The Hokies remained in the Southern Conference until 1965, and were Independent from 1965 to 1978. Virginia Tech then had stints in the Metro Conference, Atlantic 10 Conference, and Big East Conference before joining the Cavaliers in the ACC. Despite different or no conference affiliations from 1937 to 2004, Virginia and Virginia Tech always maintained athletic ties and were annual rivals in a great many sports.
All-time and ACC series results
2/12/2017 Virginia Tech - Virginia - Virginia Tech - 80, Virginia - 78. (2 OT). ©2017 ESPNU.
Series led and games won by Virginia are shaded ██. Series led and games won by Virginia Tech shaded ██. Head-to-head games/matches only
Conference, Sponsorship, Relative Popularity and Success
UVA has been a member of the ACC since 1953, while Virginia Tech was invited in 2004. Both athletics programs are also sponsored by Nike. The Cavaliers are signed with Nike through 2025, at $3.5 million per year. The Hokies are also signed with Nike through 2022 but receive significantly less, at $1.98 million per year. Virginia had the third (after FSU and Louisville) highest ACC total athletics revenue, with $91 million in 2014â€"2015. Virginia Tech was sixth, drawing $80 million.
Moreover, UVA polled as the slightly more popular college sports program in their home state as of 2015 â€" with Virginia residents choosing the Cavaliers over the Hokies by a margin of 34% to 28% â€" despite UVA having fewer students and a smaller alumni base. The first and only Fan Vote of the Commonwealth Clash, also in 2015, bore this out as there were slightly more Cavalier fans than Hokie fans in the final tally which allowed UVA to take the point.
The Cavaliers won the Capital One Cup for fielding the top overall men's athletics program in the entire nation in 2015 and the Wahoos also lead all 15 ACC programs in all-time NCAA titles for men's sports with 18 (North Carolina leads in women's titles, with Virginia and Duke tied for second place). Virginia Tech, although it has had successes against Virginia in several individual sports (most sustained in football) and like Virginia has won titles in individual track and field events, is still awaiting its first NCAA title in any sport. Pittsburgh joins the Hokies as the only two ACC programs which lack any team NCAA championships (though the Panthers do claim a few football titles, not affiliated with the NCAA).
Commonwealth Challenge and Clash
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. Future sponsorship was not sought out of respect for the Virginia Tech massacre. Virginia athletic director Craig Littlepage stated at the time that "now is not the time to be talking about bragging rights."
Challenges won by Virginia are shaded ██.
In August 2014, the two schools announced a renewed rivalry competition and new scoring system between the two schools, named the Commonwealth Clash. This new competition is sponsored by Virginia 529 College Savings Plan. UVA leads the new series 2â€"1, and the combination of series 4â€"1.
A new Fan Vote was added as part of the new Clash. UVA fans won the only Fan Vote held, defeating Hokie fans to add another point to UVA's tally in a 15â€"7 overall victory in 2014â€"15. The Fan Vote was then discontinued without explanation for the following year. Each sport is worth a single point in the Clash (when a split occurs in sports with two meetings, a half point is awarded to each team) except that track and field is now considered two different sports, each with its own points. This makes track and field worth an outsized 4 points total between the men's teams and women's teams. (Previously, sports had various values between 0.5 and 2 points.) Under the new rules the Hokies were able to tie UVA in 2016â€"17, 11â€"11, and win the tiebreaker to win their first Commonwealth Clash or Commonwealth Challenge.
The overall Virginia Tech athletics programs has improved since joining the ACC, and that is reflected in the newly competitive Clash. However, the programs do not square off in men's lacrosse, field hockey, or rowing (some of UVA's strongest sports with multiple national championships) as Virginia Tech does not field those programs. They do compete in women's lacrosse, as Virginia Tech fields a women's team only.
Yearly records
*2016-2017 finished in an 11â€"11 tie on the field, and so the title was decided on a tiebreaker of ACC Championships for that year
Intensity
Some from outside the state find the rivalry to be an especially bitter one. Former Ohio State quarterback and football analyst Kirk Herbstreit 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, I said some nice things about Al Groh and it was like I had turned my back on them."
History
Virginia Tech joins ACC
In 2003, the Atlantic Coast Conference initially planned to add Boston College, Miami, and Syracuse to the conference lineup. Talks with Syracuse stalled as Jim Boeheim 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, Virginia Tech emerged as a compromise candidate put forward to win over the decisive seventh vote from the University of Virginia that ACC officials needed to gain approval for their expansion plans.
Virginia Governor Mark Warner earlier had suggested the NCAA intervene and mediate the expansion process, and when that failed added pressure to UVA President John Casteen to refrain from casting an affirmative vote for the conference's plan to expand without Virginia Tech. Warner feared that such a move would hurt Virginia Tech by leaving it in a diminished Big East. UVA President John T. Casteen III then offered a plan to have the ACC expand but consider Virginia Tech in lieu of Syracuse 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 teams did not face each other in any of the four seasons between 2000 and 2003 (though given UVA's dominance of that series, the Hokies man never want to play them again). 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 teams had played each other annually since the 1934â€"35 season but not faced each other twice in the same season since 1983â€"84. Starting with the 2004â€"05 season, the teams have played at least twice each year, and in 2005â€"06 the teams met for a third time in the ACC Tournament.
Impact of the Virginia Tech massacre
In addition to ending the original Commonwealth Challenge, the Virginia Tech massacre had the effect of lessening of hostilities between the two universities during the aftermath. According to The Washington Post "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.
...there was the sense among Tech students that fans of U-Va. â€" an institution founded by none other than Thomas Jefferson â€" looked down their noses at the mountain-ensconced Hokies of Blacksburg. Hokies were "hicks"; Cavaliers were "snobs." But after the shootings in April, something changed. U-Va. students and faculty members wrote condolence letters, held a candlelight vigil and even painted the campus's fabled Beta Bridge with a pro-Hokies phrase.
UVa.'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 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.
Since the tragedy, it hasn't been so odd to see a Wahoo wearing a Virginia Tech sweatshirt. Since April, transfer students haven't felt so awkward saying they used to attend school in Blacksburg. Truly, Hokies and Wahoos have never been so together.
See also
- Virginiaâ€"Virginia Tech football rivalry
References
