Gold Rush

There are bigger topics in Wahooze Land - namely, today's announcement by 2014 five-star safety überrecruit Quin "Pretty Ricky" Blanding, presumably in favor of the Hoos, and the pending BIGGEST GAME OF THE SEASON in basketball, at home against Dook late tomorrow night - but neither of those tasty tidbits is what this post is about.

Nope, this piece is about something else entirely.  This thread is about Virginia Football's Gold Rush.

Wiki, take us away...

The discovery of gold nuggets in the Sacramento Valley in early 1848 sparked the Gold Rush, arguably one of the most significant events to shape American history during the first half of the 19th century. As news spread of the discovery, thousands of prospective gold miners traveled by sea or over land to San Francisco and the surrounding area; by the end of 1849, the non-native population of the California territory was some 100,000 (compared with the pre-1848 figure of less than 1,000). A total of $2 billion worth of precious metal was extracted from the area during the Gold Rush, which peaked in 1852.

Okay, so the history lesson is over, now it's time to connect the dots with how this relates to Virginia Football.  It's pretty simple: HOLY CRAP, WE ARE ABOUT TO START PLAYING A LOT OF WESTERN FOOTBALL POWERS!  We're headed out West in search of money, fame, and fortune, right, so it's kind of like a gold rush, see?  Screw it, I thought it was clever.  (Excuse my incredibly long, awkward, clumsy, clunky intro and transition.  I appreciate your dedication and patience, dear reader.)

Anyway, news broke on Monday that we have hammered out a home-and-home series with Boise State to be played in 2015 (in Charlottesville) and 2017 (in Boise).

Add that to the loco-crazy games against Oregon in 2013 (CVille) and 2016 (Eugene).

Add that to the 2013 (CVille) and 2014 (Provo) series against BYU, the 2014 (CVille) and 2015 (LA) series against UCLA, and the 2017 (home) and 2018 (away) series against Stanford.

That's a whopping FOUR home-and-home battles we'll be waging against Western powers in the coming six seasons as part of our out-of-conference schedule.  Eight games against West Coast teams.

Why are we doing this?

I'm not entirely sure, but I do kind of like the idea of UVA repping the best coast against these left coast turdmongers.  I also like the idea of playing against strong academic institutions in UCLA and Stanford.  We already talked about how we like (or dislike) the Oregon game in aspiration of playing "big boy football" instead of snacking on cupcakes.  Whether or not we're able to MAN UP remains to be seen, but we'll be generating a lot more cash with these games than we would in gimme games against the dregs of the Sun Belt and MAC, hence the term "gold rush."  Go west, get paid.  Let's do it.

By the way, you can always see our upcoming schedule, HERE.  Clicksmack that site early and often.  It's awesome.

Meanwhile, since we're already on the topic of OOC scheduling and partnering up with West Coast programs... why are we leaving the most obvious angle of all sitting there on the table?  Why don't we forge an annual rivalry against California, and set up a yearly battle between the two best public universities in the free world?  Too obvious?  I think it's a perfect fit.  A slam dunk, a grand slam, a hole in one, a hat trick, a first round knockout.

Paging Mr. Oliver.  Make it happen, bruh.  UVA/Cal, annual rivalry.  Cook it up, mi amigo.

LET'S DO THIS!

If you have a better annual rival to suggest, deposit it into the comments section, below.  Who should be UVA's play-'em-every-season, hated, out-of-conference rival?  I say Cal.  Who do you say?