The Old Dominion–VCU men's basketball rivalry is a men's college basketball

rivalry A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant ...

between the

VCU Rams The VCU Rams are the college athletics, athletic teams of Virginia Commonwealth University of Richmond, Virginia, United States. The Rams compete in NCAA Division I, Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association as members of the Atl ...

Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a Public university, public research university in Richmond, Virginia, United States. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virgin ...

and the

Old Dominion Monarchs The Old Dominion Monarchs are composed of 18 college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams representing Old Dominion University, located in Norfolk, Virginia. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, football, golf, s ...

Old Dominion University Old Dominion University (ODU) is a Public university, public research university in Norfolk, Virginia, United States. Established in 1930 as the two-year Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary, it began by educating people with fewer ...

. This rivalry is said to be one of the most competitive among middle level Division-I basketball programs.

Background

The rivalry between Virginia Commonwealth University and Old Dominion University exists primarily because of the similar histories of the two Virginia

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

universities. Both schools have historic affiliations with

The College of William & Mary The College of William & Mary (abbreviated as W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1693 under a royal charter issued by King William III and Queen Mary II, it is the second-oldest institut ...

(W&M). One of VCU's predecessor institutions, the

Richmond Professional Institute The Richmond Professional Institute (RPI) was an educational institution established in 1917, which merged with the Medical College of Virginia in 1968 to form Virginia Commonwealth University. RPI was located on what is now known as the Monroe P ...

(RPI), became part of W&M in 1925. ODU was founded in 1930 as the Norfolk Division of W&M. In addition, from 1960 to 1962, both RPI and the Norfolk Division were part of

The Colleges of William & Mary The Colleges of William & Mary was the name of a short-lived educational system in Virginia. It included The College of William & Mary, the Richmond Professional Institute, the Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary, Christopher Newp ...

, a short-lived university system consisting of W&M and its affiliated institutions. VCU, located in the state capital of

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

, is just 90 miles down

Interstate 64 Interstate 64 (I-64) is an east–west Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States. Its western terminus is at Interstate 70, I-70, U.S. Route 40 (US 40), and U.S. Route 61, US 61 in Wentzville, Missouri. Its eastern ter ...

from ODU, located in

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

. Both schools are major research universities located in an urban environment. They are also both very large universities consisting of a diverse student body; with students primarily coming from middle-class backgrounds. Throughout much of the history of the rivalry, ODU and VCU had been in the same conference, most recently the

Colonial Athletic Association The Coastal Athletic Association (CAA), formerly the ECAC South Conference and the Colonial Athletic Association, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA' ...

. This ended after the 2011–12 season when VCU joined the

Atlantic 10 Conference The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. The A-10's member schools are located most ...

. ODU left the CAA for

Conference USA Conference USA (CUSA) is a collegiate athletic conference of member institutions in the Southern and Western United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. CUSA's offices are located in Dallas, Texas. Mem ...

a year later. Rick Kiefner, a 1969 graduate of ODU, believed the animosity and rivalry may have started due to an incident during the 1970 season. A group of ODU fans, including Kiefner, had chartered a bus to travel to a VCU game in Richmond, but, instead of the tickets they had paid for, received a box of screws in the mail.

Game results

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Old Dominion-VCU Basketball Rivalry College basketball rivalries in the United States College sports in Virginia Old Dominion Monarchs men's basketball VCU Rams men's basketball Sports rivalries in Virginia