Sometimes I get the feeling that UVA dreams to be Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Columbia, Yale, and MIT on Monday-Friday, and then aspires to be Alabama, Florida, USC, Michigan, Florida State and Texas on certain Saturdays in the Fall. Can UVA really compete at the highest level every single year? I know some of the schools I listed for the Saturday comparison are having a down year, but they have all won Conference Championships, as well as National Championships in the past 20 years.
The University of Virginia, pays Al Groh almost 2 million bucks a year. Their facilities are absolutely beautiful. UVA has spent more than 85 million dollars to add luxury boxes, more parking, more seats, a better scoreboard, and and enhanced academic support center at the John Paul Jones arena. There is almost no arguing that UVA wants to play “big-boy” football. But, is the administration really willing to do what it takes to compete with Southern Cal, Florida State, and, my god, Virginia Tech? What I am really talking about, is lowering the bar academically like our in-state rival Virginia Tech has. Football-type of majors like Apparel, Housing, and Resource Management. Does UVA really want to have a major like that? Does that cheapen the degree on the wall of other Virginia graduates? Does it piss Virginia Tech graduates off, as well?
Virginia Tech has committed a ton less money to their football regime, and yet has played for a National Championship, gone to numerous BCS games, and beaten UVA 7 of the past 8 seasons. Sure, Virginia Tech is a very fine university that has some of the brightest and best students in the nation. I’m not arguing that for one second, but the Hokies have found ways to offer kids more than the 25 allowed scholarships (grey-shirting), something that UVA has only done a couple of times in the past. Will Hill was the most recent kid to be allowed in for the January semester, and that young man is an excellent student. Also, UVA did not even have a full class of student-athletes to fill the 25 allowed scholarships! This amazes me. Are you telling me that there aren’t 25 kids that would love to have an opportunity to live in Charlottesville for 4 or 5 years, and have a diploma on their wall that is recognized all around the world as one of the best? And these 25 kids each year would get to play football, and go to college here for FREE?
UVA has to seriously sit-down with their professors, donors, alumni, students, and their Board of Visitors to decide if we want to compete with the top echelon of football factories. Or, if losing to William and Mary, Wyoming, Connecticut and Fresno State is OK. We have to decide if we want to fully commit to winning, like our country-cousins in Blacksburg have already done. I understand that this is a very serious issue, and UVA is not going to just let in every kid who can simply read and write. But, do we really have the balls to play big-boy college football? Or do we just want to sit on our asses and continue to be the laughing stock of the football-elite?
