Eight Virginia players will participate in a fundraiser on Sunday to benefit Uplifting Athletes Rare Disease Day 2010. They’ll compete in an online college football video game tournament against Georgia, Ohio State, Penn State, Texas and West Virginia. I’m pretty sure Maryland competed in this last year.

It’s for a good cause, as this is the same group that organized the fundraising efforts for Ewing Sarcoma Cancer this past season with BC linebacker Mark Herzlich. Virginia raised $8,194.94 for the “Hoos for Herzlich 94″ campaign that benefited Uplifting Athletes.

If you’re in Charlottesville, the event will take place at Buffalo Wild Wings from 3 to 6 p.m. Admission is $5 in advance and $10 at the door. Funds will go toward Uplifting Athletes' mission to align college football players with the rare disease cause.

The Cavaliers will compete head-to-head against each other to determine a campus champion who will then face the winners from the other five schools to determine an overall winner. The Cavalier players participating are Ras-I Dowling, Paul Freedman, Dom Joseph, Marc Verica, Bobby Smith, Jared Green, Kevin Royal and Mike Ahunamba. Dontrelle Inman will emcee the event.

Participation in the event is part of first-year coach Mike London’s “Hoos in the Ville” program that involves members of the Virginia football team in various community service activities.

“It is important that our players get involved in community activities,” London said in a prepared statement. “It is a tremendous opportunity to not only benefit some great causes, but to have our players understand they can have a positive impact with many individuals and groups. Our hope is that “Hoos in the Ville” becomes a starting point and that they will continue to be involved in their respective communities well after they graduate from UVa.”