Let me begin by saying what we're all thinking and paraphrase one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century: screw it, dude, let's go bowling.
That's right, Cavalier fans. Despite all the preseason predictions placing Virginia firmly in the bottom half of the ACC this season, the Cavaliers are now only one game away from playing in their first postseason bowl game since 2007. And with remaining games against Maryland and Duke - who boast a combined 5-11 record - it looks like fans in Hooville can start contacting their travel agents. Now, instead of using this space to talk about how a certain Cavalier Daily columnist predicted this last year - no seriously, I did - let's take a deeper look at what a bowl game would mean to a Virginia program which is slowly making its climb back to the national stage.
First and foremost, a bowl game means money. Despite what purists may say, college football is a business - and a big business at that. And like any business, to be a successful college football program means you need money - and a lot of it. Bowl games can help with that. Any team from an automatic qualifier conference that makes a BCS bowl game - something that's not out of the question for Virginia if it wins out - stands to take home about $18 million. Even teams which receive invitations to the type of bowls the Cavaliers would be likely to play in are guaranteed to add at least half a million dollars to their bottom line. For a school like Virginia which doesn't have the type of football program like the one at Ohio State, which can produce enough money to fund its entire athletic department, every little bit helps. That bowl money can be used to help upgrade facilities, hire new personnel and fund other projects to help the program continue to improve its recruiting and image.
In addition, bowl games help generate national attention. On average, Virginia plays in only a handful of nationally-televised games at most during a single season. This means the majority of potential recruits and donors outside the Virginia area are getting precious few chances to see coach London and his crew in action. Compare this to powerhouse teams like Virginia Tech and those in the SEC who appear on national television nearly every week. Why do you think Notre Dame still gets top recruits even though it hasn't been nationally relevant in years? Appearing on NBC every week brings the Fighting Irish into the living room of every high school football player in the nation. Kids will develop an affinity for teams that they can see and grow up with, and when they finally reach the right age, those are the schools for which they're going to want to play. If the Cavaliers could go out there and put forth a good performance on a national stage like they did this past Thursday, then they'll get their name out just a little bit further and maybe reach an audience that they never have before.
Ultimately, though, what making a bowl game comes down to is winning and building a winning culture. There's an old adage in sports that winning breeds more winning and this is nowhere truer than in collegiate sports. Winning is a cycle which is incredibly tough to break into. You need to win to get the national audience, and you need the national audience to help obtain commitments to get top recruits. The catch, of course, is that you can only win if you already boast the top recruits. Sure, there are exceptions and break-out teams, but there's a reason the same teams keep appearing in the top polls and in the big games. Winning makes every aspect of a program stronger. You want more fans at games? You need to win. You want the better players? You need to win. You want national publications like ESPN's Grantland to stop making fun of Cavalier football? You need to win.
Even a victory in something along the lines of a Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl would do wonders for the program. It's something tangible that London can point to as concrete validation of all the hard work and progress the team has made during the past several seasons. It's a banner all Virginia fans can unite under to show that the time they spent cheering on the Cavaliers every Saturday wasn't for naught. There are important steps each program must go through on its road to legitimacy, and postseason success is one of the biggest.
One last thing - before I run out of time, let me stop some of you from finding where I live and burning it down for being premature and "jinxing" the team's chances. I don't believe in any of that jinx stuff. What I believe in is talent, and this year Virginia has it. The Cavaliers certainly possess the talent and coaching to win at least one of their remaining games. And if somehow they inexplicably don't, then it had nothing to do with these words, I promise you. I'm not too worried, anyway. If you're anything like a Virginia football fan this season, you probably put down this column back when I was talking about cycles. Hopefully though, after a bowl game this year, next year we'll have more readers sticking it out until the end, and the change will have begun.
Read More
Mel Josephson and women’s lacrosse prepare to take center stage
By Xander Tilock | 12 hours agoJosephson's ability to perform throughout a game's biggest moments is crucial for the Cavaliers.
Virginia schools can pay players through NIL, but the University should proceed with caution
By Emory Huffman | YesterdayGiven the unique academic and athletic opportunities Virginia is able to offer its athletes, it is not shocking that Virginia has been resistant to extravagant, NIL-induced changes.
Record-setting weekend for Virginia track and field at Penn Relays and Virginia High Performance
By Tanmayi Patil | 2 days agoThe Cavaliers took down records across two events over the weekend.
