I have a feeling that Colin isn't a big Rebel fan, either.
This will not be a preview of the UVA baseball team. That duty is best left to BWE, OMTB, or someone else who has been paying more attention than I. No, I will not mention batting averages, ERA's, or fielding percentages. I'm just going to babble about UVA the institution, student body, and way of being.
The Universities of Virginia and Mississippi share far too much in common. Having been founded as refuges for the fortunate children of aristocratic planters, both schools have long-standing traditions of alcoholism and snobbery. Notorious amongst their detractors as overly-dressed, arrogant prudes who wouldn't know a tractor pull from a turkey shoot, UVA and Ole Miss students provide their respective conferences with a silly band of tame, bow-tie wearing froo-froos towards which to direct their hatred. When considering this, the oftentimes overzealous cling to traditions and disproportionately dominant Greek systems of both schools hardly come as surprises.
Both have well established and very closely related literary traditions. William Faulkner was born and raised in the northern reaches of the Magnolia State before becoming the writer in residence at UVA. John Grisham has essentially done the same, aside from being an actual employee of Virginia. Edgar Allan Poe was briefly a student at UVA. Oxford is or has been the home of Larry Brown, Barry Hannah, and many other various writers who are redefining the scope and boundary of Southern literature.
Academically speaking.... ok, well, UVA has the nod there. We do get federal dollars to grow weed though, so take that.
Both universities are known as the centers of vibrant, unique, artistic communities whose denizens consist primarily of beautiful and brilliant people (suck it, State). We're known for whatever it is that makes us so unique and our undeserved blessings. As such, the principle modus operandi of we Ole Miss Rebels and the UVA Cavaliers is simply to remind ourselves that we're "better" than everyone else.
Yes, SEC, I am saying that we're not snobs, we're just better than you.
Consider the following:
|
|
UVA |
Ole Miss |
| Location? | Charlottesville, VA | Oxford, MS |
| Sports Teams? | The Cavaliers | The Rebels |
| Silly Chant? | Wah-hoo-wah! | Hotty Toddy! |
| Iconic Building? | The Rotunda | The Lyceum |
| Symbolic Potable? | Scotch, neat with a slice of lemon | Bourbon highball |
| Famous Home Turned Historical Landmark? | Thomas Jefferson's Monticello | William Faulkner's Rowan Oak |
| Did the harvests of a crop fund your university's founding? | Yes, tobacco | Yes, cotton |
| Where should one imbibe? | The Corner | The Square (ED: which consists of FOUR corners, bitches) |
| Rockin' the Suburbs of a Metropolitan Area? | Yes; Richmond, DC | Yes; Jackson, Memphis, Dallas, Atlanta |
| Hipsters? | The angry kinds with piercings and colored hair | The snotty kinds with thin moustaches and tight-fitting sweaters |
| Instate Rival a "Redneck School?" | Yes | Very much so |
| A Dapper Gentleman Should Wear? | Tweed | Seersucker |
| How Wealthy are You? | I'm somehow related to James Madison. | Have you ever wondered why all of the black kids in my hometown and I have the same surname? |
| Secret Societies? | 7 Society, Z Society, IMP Society, et al | The Homosexual Community |
So, to my fellow Rebels and to the Cavaliers who may have stumbled upon this fair corner of these here intratubes, I posit that we are not so different. Hell, when considering our respective attitudes and intra-conference relationships, we could possibly be mistaken as kin. We relate well with one-another.
Being an Ole Miss Alum who has recently established residency in the Washington, DC metro area (namely Arlington, Virginia), I have been heavily exposed to both Hokies and Cavaliers and will more often than not enjoy a night out with a few Wahoos. On the rare occasion (see: never) that I actively decide to be within 10 feet of a Hokie, I find it very difficult to enjoy myself and I feel that is because I am an Ole Miss Rebel. Honestly, if a Mississippian wanted to ever see what an Egg Bowl type of rivalry would look like outside of the Magnolia state, spend no more than 14 seconds listening to these two fan bases bicker at each other. UVA is the Ole Miss of the Commonwealth of Virginia, save for the fact that they routinely get their shit ruined by VA Tech.
I, along with a few other Cuppers, have visited the city of Charlottesville, Virginia and the grounds (not "campus") of the University of Virginia. After soaking in the history and beauty of the wooded hills of central Virginia by day, our nights were spent getting blinded at the Virginian, fist-fighting in the streets of sleepy C-town, and randomly waking up on bathroom floors. Yes, we had one hell of a time, and we have the Wahoos to thank for that. I cannot for the life of me recall a college town which has treated me, an outsider, to a better time than Charlottesville (Athens is definitely on up there, but, as Whiskey Wednesday can tell you, it's not too hard to stumble into the wrong bar, step over some arbitrary boundary, and anger a heroin addict there).
All things considered, I can certainly say that we are very excited to play host to this weekend's Rebel vs. Cavaliers super regional.
Just know that we're gonna beat that ass like somebody owes us money.