Thursday, July 3, 2008

swimming pools! movie stars!

UVA and West Virginia talking future football series. More on that in a bit; first, Sammy Zeglinski. This will probably be much bigger news in 2011, right now we'll have to settle for an "oh goody." The CDP reports that the NCAA has officially granted him his medical redshirt for last season, meaning Zeglinski has a full four years of eligibility. No word yet on Tunji Soroye.

So as I mentioned: West Virginia. From the Charleston Daily Mail, there is word that us and them are talking about a four game series. Sounds like fun. WVU was once a fairly common opponent; we played them each year between 1943 and 1950 and WVU must have gotten pretty sick of that because, 8 years, 8 UVA wins. Then from 1972 to 1981, six games, and WVU got their revenge in the fairly dismal just-before-Welsh years. Other than the 2002 C********l Tire Bowl* we haven't played them since 1985. And since the bowl game saw WVU get embarrassed both during the game and at halftime, their fans are not happy campers with UVA, which should make things interesting.

Of interest is the possibility that a neutral site, likely the Redskins' FedEx Field, may be chosen for the game:
Anyway, WVU and Virginia are talking a four-game series that could start as soon as 2010 or as late at 2012. If the teams can't make the home-and-home breakdown work out, they could start and end the four-game set with neutral site games at 91,700-seat FedEx Field in Landover, Md.

That plan would put the FedEx games in 2010 and 2016, with games in Charlottesville and Morgantown, respectively, in 2014 and 2015.

That would shape up 2010 as a difficult season. Road games against USC and Tech and a neutral-site game against WVU would make for some tough games away from friendly Scott Stadium.

And anyway, I don't want to see a neutral-site game. Notwithstanding the notion that WVU fans are basically Maryland fans in blue and yellow (no, turtle boy, that's not a compliment) and trips to Morgantown should generally be avoided by the faint of heart or sensitive of ear, neutral-site games are kind of against the spirit of college football. Bowl games and championship games are different because something bigger's at stake, but the students shouldn't have to travel to see their team play on a fine September Saturday. May I remind Mr. Littlepage that first-year students aren't allowed cars during football season and thus would have to scramble to go see the game?

But that's a nitpick. It's a large nit, but it's a nitpick still, and it's not even guaranteed to be a neutral-site series. A few games against West Virginia are the kind of thing that's good to have so we can still lambaste the SEC for whoring themselves out to the Chattanooga Mocs for half a million and an easy win. (Pretend we're not playing Richmond this year for the purposes of this paragraph. That's a, uh, traditional rivalry.)

*Nobody pays me to mention sponsorship names.

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