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Carmichael Cup Blues

By Fletcher Thompson

ITS NOT VERY WELL KNOWN OUTSIDE OF Chapel
and College Park, but every year the ACC gives out an
called the Carmichael Cup. It goes to the conference
that has accumulated the most points in league
Competition with seven points being awarded for a first place
six for a second, and so on, down to one for a last. No
are awarded if a school does not field a team in a
particular sport.

This year, as always, the run for the Cup boiled down to a
two-man affair between UNC and Maryland. The Tar Heels
(bless their hearts) piled up 68 1/2 points to nose out
Maryland's 66. State and Duke followed with respectable
showings for third and fourth, respectively.

WHERE IS VIRGINIA IN ALL THIS? If you look down
the list, you can find the Cavaliers cozily ensconced in fifth
place. They're the bunch that didn't have to lose any sleep
over the competition after the fall season and trotted in with
43 1/2 points, 11 1/2 behind Duke. Clemson with 39 and
Wake with 25 were the only schools protecting Virginia from
ignominy and they don't field teams in every sport. Of the five
schools that turn out at least a semblance of a squad in all 13
sports, the good old U was last and teamed with Duke to earn
the dubious distinction of being the only schools not to win a
conference crown.

THE OPTIMISTIC ANALYSIS WOULD BE TO LABEL
1973 a "bad year" and let the mater go at that. While there have
been a lot of "bad years" in Virginia athletics, this explanation
is one that does not have to be combined with tequila (or
whatever) to be accepted. Basketball, baseball, and tennis, the
sports which dredged Virginia out of the middle of the ACC
pack in the first place, did, indeed, have off years. These
programs aren't collapsing, they just went a little flat.

PERHAPS SOME OF THE SAME COULD BE SAID
about sports like soccer and swimming, where the Cavaliers
finished fourth and fifth, respectively, or even football, where
injuries and interceptions helped bury the Wahoos in the ACC
cellar along with Wake. But this sort of thing ignores the real
problem, The fact is that every Virginia coach, with the
exception of track mentor Lou Onesty, will tell you that an
ACC title is his number-one priority. There's just no way all
those fourth and fifth place finishes can be "iffed" up to firsts.

The root of Virginia's Carmichael woes is the root of all
evil: money. The other schools have it and we don't. What's
kept Maryaland on top of the conference heap is the scores of
scholarship it doles out in everything form football to fencing
in order to induce high school athletes to spend four years in
College Park. The Tar Heels aren't too far behind in the
scholarship race. IN fact, every conference, like Clemson in
baseball or Wake in golf, has devoted fat sums to being good in
something other than football and basketball– except Virginia
and Duke.

WHILE INSTITUTIONS LIKE STATE AND MARYLAND
have been handing out free rides from the word go, minor
sport coaches in Charlottesville and Durham have depended on
their schools' campuses, traditions, and atmospheres in trying
to attract a lot of Davids to slay the Goliaths from College
Park. At the same time this simon-pure duo has been
maintaining the highest academic standards in the ACC,
according to Virginia's Dean of Admissions, Ernest Ern.

This state of affairs is fast approaching the Nehru jacket in
obsolescence. Both schools are moving quickly to fuel their
non-revenue programs with scholarship athletes, and Duke
recently dropped its language requirement for admission, leaving
Virginia and Wake as the only two ACC schools maintaining
one. According to Athletic Director Gene Corrigan, whose
foremost goal is to bring a Carmichael Cup to U-Hall, every
Virginia coach now has the go-ahead to offer a scholarship to
any "blue chip" athlete who expresses an interest in coming
here. Starting right now scholarships to truly exceptional
athletes in wrestling, soccer, tennis and anything else are a
realty.

A LOT OF THE CREDIT FOR THIS DEVELOPMENT
goes to the Student Aid Foundation, which has been
generating more money than in the past. The parade of
circuses, roller derbies, and auto shows that passed through
U-Hall this winter is going to pay off in some improved minor
sport programs. As for our academic standards, long a
scapegoat for Cavalier mediocrity on the playing field, there
don't seem to be any changes in sight, but these are only
secondary considerations. "The big thing right now is money,"
says wrestling coach George Edwards, who's been waging an
up-hill fight to wrest the ACC title from the Maryland

THE ONLY PROBLEM IS THE OPPOSITION won't
stand still. While Virginia makes the first steps to "excellence
across the board" (Mr. Corrigan's phrase), the other schools
are looking around for new sports to conquer. Recently UNC
hired full-tiem coaches in both wrestling and lacrosse, sports in
which the Cavs have always counted on chewing up weak Tar
Heel squads. Scholarships can't be far behind. If this sort of
trend keeps up around the league, it may take more than just a
few scholarships in the non-revenue programs for Mr. Corrigan
to get his Carmichael Cup. And, the way things look now, he
doesn't intend to stop at just a few. There will be no freeze on
the price of Carmichael Cups.