A reader, in an email included in AFP editor Chris Graham’s Tuesday Mailbag column, wrote that “big-boy” football at Virginia is all but a dead-on arrival.
Alan prefaced his comments by saying that he had watched UVA Football for 50 years, mostly in person, and that the fan base “wasn’t built, and doesn’t necessarily want” big-boy football.
Sorry to tell you this, Alan, but you’re wrong.
First, wealthy donors don’t throw hard-earned money at something they don’t believe in.
And most wealthy donors didn’t simply inherit their fortunes – they worked hard, and strategically invested their earnings in projects they believed in, and that their investments would grow over time.
While wealthy donors don’t always equal wealthy donors that want it to go to football, at Virginia there’s enough wealthy donors that do.
Alan, you go back 50 years in Virginia football history, and don’t remember the big-boy football the Cavaliers played in the 1990s, and the passion of the fan base?
I go back about 50 years, and I remember the packed Scott Stadium games, the #1 ranking, and the actual scalping of tickets on game days.
Now, Alan, before you respond by writing that the 1990s were over three decades ago, and the landscape of college football has changed dramatically, I totally agree.
But that doesn’t mean that Virginia doesn’t want to or can’t compete on the big stage.
It’s the opposite.
Here’s why.
First, the idea that UVA isn’t pushing to elevate their football program is just wrong.
Have you seen the new 93,000-square-foot football operations center that opened in early June?
It’s an $80 million facility, funded by, you guessed it, donors.
Donors aren’t parting with hard-earned money to see Virginia play JV football.
Football has become a much more resource-intense sport now, than in the past. Facilities, increased rosters, and of course, NIL, have created a haves and have-nots division of the sport.
The wealthy donors understand to win on the field and win over the fanbase, you need to be successful, which requires significant investments.
The wealthy donors also understand it’s harder to raise the funds for investments without recent success to prove that investing is worthwhile.
How do I know this?
Because a few of the big-money donors have told me.
It takes deep wallets to have an overall phenomenally successful athletics program, which UVA has had for decades.
Other than a small number, a dozen or so, of schools that excel at both major revenue sports (basketball, football), every university has a main spectator sport that the school and fanbase throws its support behind.
Currently, Virginia, obviously, is first thought of as a basketball school.
But college football is now the stable revenue source, and the wealthy donors understand this, embrace this, and are investing into this.
Who can forget the debacle of the 2023 season finale for the football team, losing to rival Virginia Tech in embarrassing fashion?
The initial thought was that UVA could lose quite a few of their best players to the dreaded instant transfer portal.
Didn’t happen.
Why?
Seems there were still plenty of big-money donors still hanging around (not sure why) in the suites to witness the Hokies players returning to midfield for some selfies, while puffing on cigars.
That didn’t go over well.
Somehow, those key UVA players that many feared would bolt out of town, stayed.
You know the old saying in the NIL world, “money talks and bull …. walks.”
Virginia can be successful in football, they can’t afford not to be, as the other sports will feel the pinch.
Basketball may already be, have you noticed there are still some unfilled coaching positions?
If it’s money that makes a college football program successful, and make no mistake, money plays a huge part, then Virginia can compete with about any school in the country.
Yes, Alan, even Georgia.
But will UVA make that commitment?
Check out the UVA Master Plan.
Or better yet, ask a wealthy donor.
I did.
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