If you follow me on any form of social media, you know that I LOVE sports. This past

Mawrtyrs watching the NCAA Championship Game in the Campus Center

week was a pretty great week for Philadelphia sports including the playoffs returning to the city, the return of baseball, and a championship. The highlight of the week happened on Monday night. Villanova University Men’s Basketball Team won the NCAA National Championship. This was only the second time that ‘Nova has won, the last championship happening 31 years ago. On Monday night, tipoff was at 9:19PM, and I was able to find 10 Mawrtyrs who wanted to watch the game. The game was exciting, thrilling and absolutely insane, with ‘Nova winning on a buzzer beating 3 point shot. It was an absolutely amazing game-every sports fan’s dream. I know what you’re probably thinking, “you don’t even go there.” Yeah, I don’t go to Villanova, but growing up watching Philadelphia sports, and going to school two miles away, I was really excited for this game, and I went absolutely insane when they won. Not to mention it was the first championship this city has seen since 2008.

After the win, Lancaster Avenue was crazy with Villanova students celebrating the win; there were chants, high fives, and dancing. I along with five other friends went to join the

Celebrating on Lancaster Ave. at almost 1AM after Villanova won!

celebration, and I was elated to feel the energy and school spirit-even though it was not my school. I even went to the parade in Philadelphia on Friday afternoon and being there was something that I will never forget. There were an estimated 60,000 people who lined up along Market Street and crowded City Hall to cheer on the Wildcats as they made their way down Market Street on an open air bus leading to a pep rally.

After all this celebration with Villanova, I wondered, “why isn’t ‘BiCoVa (get it BiCo+Nova) a thing?!” The distance from Bryn Mawr to Villanova is the exact same as Bryn Mawr to Haverford. Villanova is a midsize, D1, college ranked number one in Regional Universities.

The NCAA champions!

There are definitely things that Bi-Co students could enjoy at Villanova, like a business program and nationally ranked sports (hello football/basketball games aka school spirit). And of course they can benefit from things in the Bi-Co, like our humanities classes and food (and reliable Wi-Fi.) I mean they take our parking spots anyway.

If academically we cannot create a bi-co/tri-co like relationship, I feel like at least socially, we should have a connection. There is such a stigma between the two schools, which I do not understand. I want to be able to go to basketball games without getting weird looks from Bryn Mawr and Villanova students. Villanova students should be able to come here without getting the “ugh another ‘Nova bro” sigh. Throughout the course of March Madness, I got some comments from people questioning why I was cheering for Villanova. Umm Mainline spirit/I need someone to root for??? Both Villanova and Bryn Mawr are great schools-very different school but great schools none the less. I don’t understand why there is hate between us. We share the same town-we all go to Hope’s cookies, go the extremely small Starbucks, and order from Tiffin. Why not have some type of relationship with them?  Aren’t we all just college students trying to make it?

Maybe not in my time, but I hope one day we can have an academic or social relationship with our Mainline neighbors. Go Owls and Go Cats!

At the parade in Philly!