College football rivalries played for Muskets, Little Brown Jugs, Paul Bunyan and other assorted awards are the norm. Hampton and Howard play for institutional identity.

Week 1 is the most special date on the college football calendar. Optimism is boundless as records reset and summer gives way to autumn.

Basketball has its madness in March. But college softball can lay claim to some mayhem of its own that begins in mid-May and runs into June.

Richmond has qualified for the FCS playoffs 11 times and won the national championship in 2008, but the program’s last playoff appearance came in 2016.