The University of Virginia has offered an official apology to West Virginia for jokes that the UVa pep band made at the Continental Tire Bowl.

This incident has sparked some discussion on the Rice MOB mailing list. We've been in the position that the Virginia band is in now, though we don't put ourselves there nearly as often as they do. One member of the band is from West Virginia and was at the 1985 game where the UVa band made similar jokes. He sees a distinction between making fun of people for their actions and making fun of peoplee for their heritage, as the former is a choice and the latter is not. Another member feels that this is all much ado about nothing, and that taking offense over such a trifle is itself a tad bit offensive.

It's entirely possible, as a third person suggests, that the apology offered by the UVa president is insincere, in the sense that he personally doesn't care who was or wasn't offended by this halftime show but recognizes that it costs him nothing to give the West Virginia governor what he wants. The differences between this kind of insincere apology and the ones offered by Trent Lott and why they work while Lott's didn't are left as an exercise for the reader.