<p>Got this today forwarded from a friend via a 2010 listserv so I thought I'd pass it one for those that didn't receive it.</p>
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Fellow Wahoos,</p>
<p>For five weeks, the Athletics Department has failed to address student concerns over the sign ban. Despite persistent requests to reconsider, today the Athletics Department affirmed that the ban is consistent with promoting a "positive gameday environment." We disagree. In response, Student Council, Hoo Crew, and the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee encourage you to join Power of Students Night at Scott Stadium this Saturday as we extend the protest against the sign ban. As with the white paper four weeks ago, our message will only be clear with high participation. </p>
<p><strong><em>ALL STUDENTS ARE ASKED TO WEAR BLUE TO SATURDAY NIGHT'S GAME. If you don't have blue, ANYTHING BUT ORANGE will do</em></strong></p>
<p>Why blue?</p>
<p>In recent years, the athletics department has been steadily imprinting its own brand upon U.Va. sports. Beginning in 2003, it told students what to wear in instituting the "Sea of Orange;" 2008's ban on signs, flags, and banners is a bold step toward controlling what we say. By vacating the student section of "official" orange wear, we can make it clear that we will no longer buy into their vision of what makes a "positive gameday environment." Creating a sea of blue allows us to send that message, while continuing to support our team in a critical conference game.
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CHARLOTTESVILLE-- University of Virginia Athletics Director Craig Littlepage announced Thursday that he is repealing the policy prohibiting signs, banners and flags in all UVa athletics venues.</p>
<p>“The policy prohibiting signs, banners and flags in all UVa athletics venues has become a distraction and has taken the focus away from supporting our student-athletes,” Littlepage said. “Our football team needs our support right now and that should be our collective focus. With that in mind, I am repealing immediately the policy prohibiting signs, banners and flags in all athletics venues. I encourage all of our fans to be in attendance at Saturday night’s football game with Maryland. My hope is our fans will wear orange and be prepared to support the Cavaliers.”
<p>It's a good thing that the Athletic department lifted the ban. Otherwise, we would have to nominate them for a Jefferson</a> Muzzle. That would be embarrassing for the school founded by Jefferson to get a Jefferson Muzzle.</p>
<p>It's a good thing that they finally lifted the ban of signs.
But I still don't like their trying to push people to wear orange t-shirts.
As an alumnus wrote in Cavalier Daily the other day, it has been a UVa's tradition for guys to wear shirts & tie and dress for girls at the game.
It really distinguishes ourselves from other schools and manifests our "true" color. What's unique about wearing orange clothes? So many other schools have the color of orange for their school color, and I just cannot accept the notion that UVa joins the crowd of such a platitudinousness.</p>
<p>Dressing up to football games is ridiculous and is a drag on the gameday atmosphere. The "Sea of Orange" looks great and makes for a loud and exciting game. People wearing ties and girls wearing any color but orange ruin the visual of the "Sea of Orange." When you go to a football game, you wear your team color. </p>
<p>Plenty of other schools do the tie thing; it does NOT set us apart. Ever seen an Auburn game? South Carolina? Vanderbilt? Ultimately, what sets us apart are fans who arrive early, stand and yell the whole game, and stay until the end. That's what made the Maryland game so great (I watched it after the game on TV, and the announcers could not stop commenting on how exciting the fans were, etc.) </p>
<p>So please, stop the tie nonsense. There is a new tradition, and it is called the Power of Orange.</p>
<p>Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but you need to be respectful when declaring yours - it just came off as rude and arrogant. If you haven't tried the dressing up tradition, you can't really comment on it. It's very fun. Both dressing up and sea of orange are great ways to express UVA spirit at games.</p>
<p>it's not meant to set UVA apart from other schools, the tradition of "dressing up" was a southern thing and has been apart of many southern schools for many years. Dressing up alone doesn't create a drag on the gameday atmosphere, if so I'm pretty sure half the SEC would have Duke-esque environments (football not bball).</p>
<p>who's to say that you MUST wear your team color to games? Power of Orange campaign is pretty ridiculous to me (I myself wear orange to games). The fans won't be any louder by wearing all orange (though it does look amazing), the fans feed off the team and vice versa, in other words, winning cures all.</p>
<p>The game against UNC was boring until 58minutes into the game, it was more or less a defensive game from both ends, and then all of a sudden, UVa seemed to have tansformed itself into a mighty pro football team marching more than 80 yards within just two minutes with such an ease for a game-tieing TD. Wow! What happened?</p>
<p>Credit should be given to the defensive unit for limiting UNC to only 10 points in regular time despite such a dismal performance by the offensive unit. Had they allowed more points it would have been almost impossible for UVa to come back like they did in the final minutes of the game. Winning is good , however, UVa should work on improving their offense especially the consistency factor. I think they have talents and ability but they need to learn and practice how to use 'em properly week in and week out. </p>
<p>In any case I enjoyed the game and the ending was one of the best.</p>
<p>BAAHA I enjoyed the UNC game immensely, especially since I couldn't feel my feet, nose, face, fingers, and the rest of my body. And I was wearing Under Armour. But nevertheless, I cried. And when we rushed the field, I was in the student section and there's a big wall separating the field from the seats (it's about a 7-8 ft drop) and I was all over that wall like a panda on bamboo. And then I ran onto the field and I was hugging some random person for a good 5 minutes before running off the field and back to my dorm where I reenacted the entire game. Loved Saturday. Loved football. Loved everything.</p>
<p>UHM BUT HELLO??? I don't think we should run the football anymore. What a horrible call. The UVa chains started moving when we finally started throwing in the last 2 minutes of regulation. LIKE w-t-f? About half way through second quarter, I was yelling at Groh to stop running the damn ball. I'm assuming he heard my yells eventually. ;)</p>
<p>Even though we didn't do the best at the start of the game, it was great! I enjoyed it much more than the Maryland game, the NC game had you on your (albeit frozen) toes the whole game. </p>
<p>Rushing the field was so much fun, sprinting from the top of the student section, and down the 8 ft drop was great! The comment about regulations about fans on the field (ps, get your asses off the field) was pretty funny too.</p>
<p>After the game, the guys from a certain Alderman suite brought some huge iPod speakers to the top floor of O'Hill, blasted music, Jock Jams, and we got everyone upstairs dancing, singing and re-living the game. Everyone all got up and one point and sang the Good 'Ol Song, it was great!</p>
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UHM BUT HELLO??? I don't think we should run the football anymore. What a horrible call. The UVa chains started moving when we finally started throwing in the last 2 minutes of regulation. LIKE w-t-f? About half way through second quarter, I was yelling at Groh to stop running the damn ball. I'm assuming he heard my yells eventually.
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The only reason that we scored a touchdown against them at the end was because they played a prevent defense that is designed to allow an offense to make short gains but nothing long. Verica did a good job exploiting the prevent by finding open receivers that ended up breaking tackles and getting out of bounds. Their regular defense basically shut down the passing game because they had excellent coverage down the field so Verica threw sideways passes pretty much the whole game. This led to Groh deciding to run the ball more often than not.</p>