| abstract | - The Commonwealth Cup is an American college football rivalry game played between the Virginia Cavaliers football team of the University of Virginia and the Virginia Tech Hokies football team of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Typically, this series is played on a Saturday close to Thanksgiving. The trophy is an important component of the greater Virginia-Virginia Tech rivalry. Though the two schools first met in 1895 and have played annually since 1970, the Cup is a relatively new tradition, beginning in 1996. Currently, Virginia Tech holds the cup, having won the 2012 matchup by the score of 17-14. The Hokies have won nine consecutive games in the series. The Commonwealth Cup trophy itself is four feet high and contains the scores of all of the games in the Virginia-Virginia Tech series. Since the 1964 matchup, the game has always been played at either Lane Stadium or Scott Stadium on the campuses of the two universities. But the series has at times been played in Richmond (1903, 1904, and 1957); Norfolk (1940, 1941, and 1942); and Roanoke (in 17 of the 19 years between 1945 and 1963). Virginia Tech leads the all-time series between the schools 52-37-5, and the Cup series 14-3. At 94 games it is the longest series for the Hokies and the second-longest for the Cavaliers, after the 116-game series between Virginia and North Carolina known as the South's Oldest Rivalry.
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