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The Virginia–William & Mary rivalry is a college rivalry which exists between the Virginia Cavaliers sports teams of the University of Virginia (called Virginia in sports media and abbreviated UVA) and the William & Mary Tribe sports teams of the College of William & Mary. Despite the disparate size of the two universities, historical and contemporary sources describe teams of the two universities as sporting rivals. The Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball team's oldest rivalry is against William & Mary, beginning in 1905–06. The football series began in 1908.

As of October 2019, UVA leads the college basketball series 55–26, the college baseball series 58–16–2 , and the college football series 30–6–1. The football series is more lopsided than those of most other sports in part because, since 1978, Virginia competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) while William & Mary competes in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), both of Division I. The FBS is considered the NCAA's highest division where (generally) larger universities with greater resources compete.

Nevertheless, even the football rivalry has maintained a level of competitiveness despite the subdivision split: William & Mary defeated Virginia 26–14 in 2009, and won 41–37 in 1986. Prior to the split, William & Mary handily shutout Virginia 37–0 in 1959, and again 14–0 in 1976. William & Mary was also very competitive regionally, with its history including a 14-game unbeaten streak (12–0–2) against VPI (Virginia Tech) from 1939 through 1954. The earliest history of this rivalry was dominated by the Cavaliers though, which started 10–0–1 in the series before first losing to the Indians in 1940.

Natural Rivals
Though UVA is a larger university than William & Mary and the two programs have never shared a conference, this rivalry was referred to as Virginia men's basketball's "oldest rivalry" by the Virginia athletics department in 2018. Over half a century earlier, William & Mary was identified as one of Virginia football's three "natural rivals" in a prominent alumni letter to Virginia president Colgate Darden in 1951. As frequent in-state rivals, some sports such as baseball meet annually or sometimes even multiple times per year.

This college rivalry also has an academic component, as these are the highest ranked public universities in the U.S. state (called the "Commonwealth") of Virginia and both perennially rank among the Top 10 public universities of the entire United States in the annual rankings of U.S. News & World Report. The two sides share a common precedent in Thomas Jefferson, who attended William & Mary in the 1760s and founded the University of Virginia in 1819.

Effects of William & Mary Scandal of 1951
William & Mary was besieged by an academic scandal in 1951 that led to the resignations of its college president, athletics director, and head football coach. The scandal involved the W&M athletics department doctoring the transcripts of high school football players to ensure admission to William & Mary. At the time, the William & Mary Board of Visitors was said to place a far higher emphasis on football than academics. But though the William & Mary Board refused to de-emphasize football per se, the scandal led to W&M receiving very little consideration for the nascent Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) when it was formed in 1952, despite William & Mary football defeating its future members NC State, Duke, Wake Forest, (and VPI) in 1951 alone. William & Mary was a small college at the time, but Wake Forest was then (and remains today) even smaller.

The 1951 scandal in Williamsburg (and other football scandals in the same year, such as one at West Point) reached to Charlottesville and beyond. With these scandals and perceived academic costs of "big-time football" on the mind of many at the university, UVA president Colgate Darden declined an invitation for the 1951 Virginia team to face an undefeated Bobby Dodd's 1951 Georgia Tech team in the 1952 Orange Bowl. He also reduced football scholarship support and argued against joining the ACC. The UVA Board of Visitors voted to join the ACC after all, but the damage was done. With no future bowl prospects in play at Virginia, successful coach Art Guepe left for Vanderbilt and Virginia went on a 28-game losing streak from 1958 to 1960, including (perhaps ironically) a 37–0 lopsided loss to William & Mary in 1959. The streak finally ended in Virginia's opening game of 1961, a long-awaited 21–6 victory... against William & Mary.

Soccer
Comedian Jon Stewart had his William & Mary soccer career ended by Bruce Arena's Virginia team, 2–1, in 1983. William & Mary bounced the No. 6 seeded Virginia team from the 2002 NCAA Tournament on penalty kicks.