If you are even the most casual of sports fans, you are probably planning to go to Saturday’s football game. It’s a huge deal—opening day, the game will be regionally televised on ABC and Virginia is taking on the No. 3 team in the country. Southern California may have a talent advantage on paper, but we have home field advantage, right?
Well, that depends on whom you ask. Virginia students have long debated how to dress for football games, with the sides being “guys in ties, girls in pearls” and “Sea of Orange.” As impartial as I am, I think it would be awesome if Scott Stadium could just once experience an “Orange-Out” the way Penn State has “White-Outs” at some of their big football games. But that is seemingly an impossibility, and I guess I’m OK with that.
What I am unsure about is the policy implemented by the athletic department, which appears to further water down whatever home field advantage previously existed on game days. In case you missed it, here is a line from the e-mail sent by the athletic department to the entire student body regarding student ticketing procedures: “Beginning this year, signs are not permitted inside athletics facilities. Thank you for your cooperation.” This part of the e-mail certainly caught me off-guard, and it offered no explanation for the change in policy, which used to ban only signs containing profanity or derogatory remarks. So, in searching for further details on the new policy, I found a document titled “Virginia athletics facility security rules” on UVAShots.com. This list offers some minor elaboration about the change: “All banners, signs and flags are prohibited in University of Virginia athletics venues.”
If you think the University is setting a trend here, that’s not the case; rather, it is following suit with schools like Virginia Tech, which has banned signs at games for a number of years. I’m sure some people will be upset by this decision, but I just feel like this is a case of poor timing. The final home game of last season was against Virginia Tech, and there was only a lukewarm home field advantage (if one was there at all), in part because of decisions made by the athletic department. I wrote a column about this last year, so I don’t need to go into this all over again, but the level of pro-Tech ceremonies and overwhelming welcome for the opposition was absurd. And now, just one home game later, there is a ban on signs, banners and flags. It also doesn’t help that this is Virginia’s biggest non-conference home game in quite some time, against such a nationally renowned football program with a widespread fanbase.
I can’t fault the athletic department for enacting the ban on signs. Virginia is not the first school to adopt this policy, and it won’t be the last. But I feel like the University is treating home field advantage as a non-factor, and is taking a naive view on what “sportsmanship” is all about. Fans can have signs and banners and still value sportsmanship. It’s not as if signs that say, “I want to be on TV” or “Wahoowa” degrade the opposition in any way or take away from the gameday experience of fans (as long as the sign-bearer doesn’t obnoxiously wave it around and hold it up for three straight hours). I don’t see the need for the change, especially not now.
There is an element of this policy that is unique to Virginia, concerning its founder. Being a student here, you can’t avoid seeing the image or words of Thomas Jefferson on anything and everything. It’s something you just get used to. I’ve never involved TJ in any of my columns before, but I must bring up the father of the University here. The man wrote the Declaration of Independence and was a proponent of free speech, so I wonder what Mr. Jefferson would say to the current administration of his University about the new policy?
I’ve never brought a sign to a game before, and I definitely don’t want to incite any riots, but I am curious to see what will happen to the first guy who tries to get a sign into Scott Stadium for the game. And the guy after him. And so on. Regardless, at least be loud and cheer on the Cavaliers in their quest to forget about the turbulent off-season and have a successful year on the gridiron.
Read More
With 10 games left in the regular season, Virginia baseball must be near-perfect
By Emory Huffman , Xander Tilock and Ryan Weiner | 8 hours agoVirginia has reached the witching hour.
Live tracker: the men’s basketball offseason
By Michael Liebermann , Emory Huffman and Xander Tilock | 17 hours agoA frenetic offseason likely awaits.
For Virginia softball, the map to victory is clear — it’s also on the wall
By Cierra Lyles | YesterdayA team tradition inspires a culture of success.
