There wasn't any real "gaffe." The U.Va. athletic dept had disliked the pep band for decades, and had already tried once before to get rid of them and replace them with a "scab band." Over the years the athletic dept had tightened their grip -- censorship of halftime show scripts, etc.

As a scramble band, the U.Va. pep band's shows were largely a series of jokes (admittedly not great ones, and got even less funny as the censorship increased), accompanied by songs. A staple of some halftime shows was a joke poking fun at the day's opponent. (E.g, at a Maryland game after Md. Gov. Marvin Mandel was convicted in the 1970s, he was announced as "special guest conductor" and the student band leader came out in prison attire.). Opponents were less inclined to take these jokes in good humor if they lost to U.Va. (a rare event when I was there).

Anyway, the athletic dept's machinations finally came to a head, IIRC, after the 2002 Continental Tire Bowl against West Va. (This was during the Al Groh era). The W.Va. joke was based on one of those dating TV shows - a guy had to choose between a "Va. girl" and a "W.Va. girl". I believe there were references to outhouses or bad teeth or some other hillbilly stereotypes. All of this had been seen and approved in advance by the athletic department's censors.

As it turned out, WVU lost the game pretty badly, various unhappy fans and university/state officials complained, and they provided the U.Va. athletic department with a pretext to do what they wanted to do anyway -- get rid of the band.

The athletic department's shabby treatment of the pep band continued for several years thereafter. They were banned from football and men's basketball games, replaced by the marching band. The pep band volunteered to play in the stands at non-revenue sports, but the athletic dept would not let them even do that.

On the positive side, I should note that a major donor to the new U.Va. band was W&M alumna Hunter Smith, who also is a huge supporter of the College in general and the Zable Stadium renovation in particular.