I'm Back!

Wow. I just checked my own blog and can't believe I haven't updated this since before the Music City Bowl. I was there with my whole family, including my parents (Dad is a Vandy alum too). It was an incredible experience and was amazed we actually won the game. I was happy about just going to a bowl.

Well, after a long summer, Commodore football is back! We beat Western Carolina at home to the tune of 45-0. It was our first shut-out in ten years. It was great to see freshman QB Smith have a decent game and that our defense was such a force. I'm a little nervous about our new kicker, freshman Fowler, since he missed two make-able field goals. We can't afford that against SEC teams!

Still, it was a great way to start the season. It is going to be a grueling one since we are the only SEC team, and one of only 15 teams in 1-A football, to not have a bye week. At first I thought this was part of the SEC old-boy network, but having read this article, I see that it was just a poor job by our athletic department. C'mon guys!!!

It's Official - Vandy v. Boston College in Music City Bowl

Hot off the presses!

Did I say Liberty? I mean't Music City!

Okay, mark me down for one mistake at least. I forgot about Kentucky!

With only eight SEC teams qualified for the post season and one SEC practically assured of playing for the national title (I still think there is a risk Florida won't make it with a victory over Alabama but I hope I'm wrong), the Memphis Liberty Bowl and the Nashville Music Bowl will be select from the last two SEC teams.

Each of these two bowls submit their list of preferences and the SEC decides who will go where. If The principal motivating factor for a bowl is to make money, which means selling tickets and hotel rooms. Kentucky has a large and proven fan base and has played in the Music City Bowl for the last two years in a row. Vanderbilt is the smallest school in the SEC and hasn't been to a bowl in 26 years. In other words, smaller fan base and unknown post-season turnout.

I would expect the Liberty folks and the SEC to want Kentucky to go Memphis. It would be a new venue for Kentucky fans to visit while still close to its home state (important in these tough economic times!).

The Nashville media's take is that a Music City bowl bid is a bad thing for Vanderbilt and Nashville. I completely disagree for the following reasons:

• It's a Vanderbilt bowl - The old adage of beggars can't be choosers applies here. I'd be happy with the Joe the Plumber Bowl. I think most Vandy fans are just excited its happening at all.
  
• Vandy alumni are nationwide & global - I don't have the statistics handy, but its safe to say that Vanderbilt has the lowest percentage of local state residents of any SEC school. This means more hotel rooms sold to visiting Vandy fans.
  
• Tough economic times - With the financial markets in turmoil, home foreclosures, and massive layoffs, people don't have as much (if any) disposable income, especially this time of year of gift giving. So the college bowls are also facing the same beggars can't be choosers adage. One has to ask the question if a more distant school is selected that enough people would travel to make a difference for hotel rooms.
  
• Grow the local fan base - If Vanderbilt is going to grow its fan base, it will have to win over Middle Tennessee. Many UT fans are also part-time Vandy fans. But the last twenty years has produced little on the field for these fans to get excited about. With UT down and changing coaches, Vandy has a great opportunity to enthuse these part-time fans over the coming seasons. A local bowl game will help that.
  
• Other bowls are doing it - Even with only a few bowl announcements prior to this final weekend of games, we already know that Rice will be at home in Houston for the Texas Bowl and Georgia Tech will be playing in the Chick-Fil-A bowl which is less than three miles from their own campus!

Vandy Likely for Liberty Bowl

When the season began, my expectations were not very high:

I would expect wins against Rice and Duke, and possible victories against Miami(OH) and maybe Ole Miss. After that things get more dicey with Mississippi State (who went to a bowl last season) and perhaps Kentucky or Wake Forest. I'll be happy with a four win season or a signature upset win, such as against Auburn (we haven't beaten them since 1955) or Florida (last win 1988) or Tennessee (how sweet that victory would be).

Who would have predicted a 5-0 start, another victory over South Carolina, a first win over Auburn in over half a century, and a visit to College Gameday to Vanderbilt campus. There was the inevitable tailspin of four straight losses including the weaker teams of Mississippi State and Duke. There were also the disappointing losses against Tennessee and Wake Forest. However, the glory of victory against Kentucky clinched our first bowl eligible season in a quarter-century.

Here are my prediction on bowl games if Bama wins the SEC Championship:

• National - Alabama
• Sugar - Florida
• Capital One - Ole Miss
• Cotton - LSU
• Outback - Georgia
• Chick-Fil-A - South Carolina
• Liberty - Vandy

If Florida wins the SEC Championship, I'm afraid there is a good chance they won't play for the national title thanks to the BCS B.S. In this case, I see the bowls shaking out this way:

• Sugar - Florida
• Capital One - Alabama
• Cotton - Ole Miss
• Outback - Georgia
• Chick-Fil-A - LSU
• Liberty - Vandy
• Music City - South Carolina

In either case, it looks like the Liberty Bowl will go for Vanderbilt. The Chick-Fil-A bowl people said they would only consider the 'Dores if they could beat both Tennessee and Wake Forest, which obviously did not happen. Considering this, it is doubtful would get any better consideration with the higher ranked bowls.

While it would be convenient to play in the Music City bowl, there is a concern that not as many hotel rooms would be sold by selecting a local team. It may not be up them anyway since the Liberty Bowl selects first and there are a shortage of bowl eligible SEC teams this year.

Holy Schniky! Vandy is Bowl Eligible!

Vandy beats Kentucky with a big help from D.J. Moore - his first two receptions were both touchdowns plus an interception. We are now bowl eligible for the first time in 26 years. This will be the first time that both Kentucky and Vandy are bowl eligible in the same season. UK has played in the Music City bowl for the past two years.

A Truly Historic Win

With ESPN College Gameday on campus, on national television, the Commodores continued their amazing season with a victory over the Auburn Tigers. Here is why this win is such an incredible accomplishment:

• The first 5-0 start since 1943 (the season was only five games long due to WWII)
• The first victory over Auburn since 1955
• The win keeps Vandy in sole possession of the SEC East lead
• This is the first time of having three straight SEC victories since 1982
• The first game against a ranked opponent when Vanderbilt was also ranked since 1947
• Despite losing 13 games in a row against Auburn, the series is now tied 20-20-1
  
• Representatives from the Capital One bowl (Orlando, the top non-BCS bowl for the SEC), Liberty Bowl (Memphis), and the PapaJohns.Com Bowl (Birmingham) were in attendance last night.

Here are my favorite signs from Gameday:

• Please move you are blocking the library
• The geeks shall inherit the turf
• The three-finger VU sign done by the entire Gameday crew

If you want to read more about it, try these links:

http://www.insidevandy.com/drupal/node/8187

http://www.conquerandprevail.com/

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recap?gid=200810040072

http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=859023

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081005/SPORTS0602/810050409/1002/SPORTS

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/sec?tag=nashville%200806

ESPN Gameday Coming to Vandy campus!

Thanks to Vanderbilt's onfield performance and a series of upsets last weekend, ESPN announced Sunday that their signature television show, College Gameday, will be broadcast from Vanderbilt campus for the first time ever!

With USC, Florida, Georgia, and Wisconsin all losing and idle Vanderbilt moving up two spots in the rankings thanks to attrition, the 'Dores upcoming contest has suddenly become one of the most interesting match-ups in the country for this weekend.

The game will be No. 19 Vanderbilt taking on No. 13 Auburn. This will be the first game for Vanderbilt to be playing as a ranked team in over twenty years! The game will be broadcast on ESPN at 6pm Eastern this Saturday. Auburn is currently favored by 3.5 despite its anemic offensive production so far this season. They beat Mississippi State by a score of 3-2. Yes, 3-2! They are facing a must-win situation with the emergence of Alabama as a sudden national power and LSU continues to dominate the SEC.

Meanwhile, Vanderbilt has another opportunity to prove on national television that this is not the "Same Ole Vandy" - snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The pundits dubbed the 2008 season for the Commodores as a rebuilding year due to the losses of all-time SEC receiver Earl Bennett and defensive stars Goff and Williams. Yet here Vandy stands in October with a 2-0 SEC record and leading the SEC East all by itself.

As for this Vandy fan, I'm trying to just enjoy the moment and hope the national spotlight helps Coach Johnson's recruiting efforts for years to come. Like I said before the South Carolina game on ESPN last month, I just hope they keep it close and make a good game of it. You have to do that when your team has had so many heartbreaking losses. But I do believe we can win!

Here are some other facts: Vanderbilt has not been ranked for three consecutive weeks since 1956. We haven't beaten Auburn since 1955.

UPDATE: ESPN will be broadcasting from the new Commons on Peabody campus. Watch them set-up live with Vanderbilt's web cam!

Vandy Ranked In Top 25!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vanderbilt is now ranked for the first time since 1984!

They are 24th in USA Today coaches' poll and an amazing 21st in the AP poll!

According to the AP, we are ranked higher than Illinois, East Carolina, TCU and Fresno State.
According to the coaches poll, we are higher than East Carolina, Nebraska, and Oklahoma State.

There are now six SEC teams ranked in the top 25: Georgia, Florida, LSU, Alabama, Auburn, and now ole Vandy.

This was after a big victory over Ole Miss at Oxford last night.

Way to go 'Dores! Woo Hoo!

Why USC Doesn't Deserve the Praise

I am sick and tired of all these sports commentators saying that USC has an incredible football team that is hands-down the best in the nation. Here are reasons why they don't deserve that level of praise:

1. They have only played two games
   Here we are in mid-September with most other teams having logged twice that many games. They had two weeks to prepare for their allegedly biggest challenge - Ohio State. Too bad the Buckeyes didn't have that chance.
   
2. Their victories are less impressive
   Now that the pre-season is over (no more cupcake opponents), we are starting to see how good or bad these football teams *really* are. USC blew out a mediocre Virgina team from the mediocre ACC. They blew out an Ohio State team that led Troy by a measely field goal until the fourth quarter. A Sunbelt conference team! Wake me up when they have a real opponent. That will be sometime next year, unless USC is pampered with another less-than-challenging schedule...
   
3. Their schedule is a cakewalk
   There is only one other ranked team in the PAC-10, being Oregon. This team just lost to Boise State of the WACC. This is their only ranked opponent on USC's schedule. If they can't run the table, they don't deserve to be ranked at all, let alone number one.

So while USC is surfing the waves of mediocre opponents in the California sun, the SEC powerhouses are beating each other up. Half of the top ten are SEC teams. HALF! It's too bad that LSU and Auburn had to play each other and force one out of the top ten (sorry Auburn). Whoever survives the SEC season deserves a shot at the national title against the annointed USC. I hope whoever it is kicks their tail.

This is what stinks about not have a championship playoff system. It favors the teams that can dominate their own conference while avoiding any real challeneges outside. Margin-of-victory can help offset a lower strength of schedule.

Vandy #26!

The 'Dores received 63 votes last week in the Associated Press poll, which is the most for any team outside of the top 25. This was thanks to a 3-0 start after beating Rice this past weekend. We haven't been ranked since 1984 when we reached 19th place.

If we can get a victory over Ole Miss this coming weekend, we should hopefully make the top 25. Of course, nothing should ever be taken for granted as a Vanderbilt fan. But all we need is a chance...

Oh, and how about Jay Cutler throwing a TD and making the 2-point conversion to beat San Diego and take the Broncos to 2-0 yesterday?!

Woooooooo Hoooooooo !!!!!!!

Vandy Beats South Carolina!

...on national TV - ESPN

...first win in Nashville over ranked opponent since 1992.

Go 'Dores!!!!!!!!!

Also, please note the grammatical error on the Yahoo homepage picture above. What is it about adverbs and the sports media?

Another Vandy Football Season

It is not easy being a Vanderbilt football fan. While my wife prepares to see her Georgia Bulldogs defend their number one preseason ranking and some of my in-laws wonder if their Florida Gators can get another championship and it Tebow can repeat as the Heisman trophy, I wonder if this will finally be the season where we get to a bowl game.

It has now been over a quarter of a century since the 1982 Hall of Fame bowl. The good news is that we've been closer than ever under Coach Bobby Johnson. In 2007 we were only one play away from beating both Georgia and Tennessee. I'd say that is pretty darn impressive for a small private school going up against tax-payer funded powerhouses of the SEC. Each of the past three season have had a signature upset win: at South Carolina in 2007, at Georgia in 2006, and at Tennessee in 2005.

Unfortunately, 2008 will be a rebuilding year for my Commodores. We lost SEC star WR Earl Bennett to the NFL draft (selected in the third round by Chicago) along with other defensive players. We also don't have a definitive starting quarterback since neither Nickson nor Adams won the job permanently last season.

Also, the schedule will be tougher this year. I would expect wins against Rice and Duke, and possible victories against Miami (OH) and maybe Ole Miss. After that things get more dicey with Mississippi State (who went to a bowl last season) and perhaps Kentucky or Wake Forest. I'll be happy with a four win season or a signature upset win, such as against Auburn (we haven't beaten them since 1955) or Florida (last win 1988) or Tennessee (how sweet that victory would be).

I also hope that DB D.J. Moore, first team all-SEC, will have an outstanding season. The experts say we have one of the best secondaries in the country (our defense was ranked 16th nationally last year). It would be nice of that could continue. The key to our future is to continue having Vandy players drafted in early rounds of the NFL. Cutler and Williams going in the first round over past three seasons has certainly helped our visibility!

The BCS Farce

I love it. Number one Missouri and number two West Virgina lost yesterday and has sent the country into a tizzy. No one know who will be playing in the national title game, even after all the regular season has ended. The obvious conclusion for any sane person is that the BCS is a bunch of BS.

Let's look at the three arguments that the SEC commissioner, overseer of the BCSBS, raised prior to this weekend:

1. Preserve the regular season - The most common argument is that the regular season of college football is the best of any American sports and that a playoff system will make the regular season less important. However, since only the top two teams are in the "playoff" usually a single loss will forfeit a team's chance for the postseason. Thus, teams will schedule cupcake out-of-conference games to improve the chances of an undefeated season. Michigan has already said they would never schedule a game against a 1-AA team ever again after losing to Appalachian State. You won't see an exciting game like that ever again thanks to the BCSBS. Maybe Michigan will schedule a contest against a high school team. Won't that be riveting football?

2. Protect the bowl system - The second argument is that the existing bowl system must be preserved. To translate that into English, the huge profits made by companies off the effort of college athletes must be protected. In other words, protect the big money, the corrupt system. They can try to trot out the legacy and heritage of the system, but lets look at reality. The Rose Bowl began in 1902, five major bowls in 1940, eight major bowls in 1960, and eleven in 1970. The system has now inflated to a ridiculous thirty-two bowls. Aside from the vacation for the teams and their fans, the bowl game has no real importance. Does it really matter if you lose a bowl game? The importance is making it to a bowl game. What exactly is so great about this system, aside for those who profit from them?

3. The Student Athlete. This is probably the most laughable argument that is practically undeserving of a response. In major football programs, the players are there to play football, not to get an education. Every one knows this. This is not debatable. The reason they go to class, declare a major, keep decent grades, is because the NCAA forces them to. To play football you have to go to class. The current system disgusts me because of all the people who make money off of college athletes while they receive little compensation. Some may argue they get a free education, but the football powerhouse schools are not the best academic schools. Furthermore, the coursework students take must be light so they can focus on football.


4. No Perfect System. The final argument, which shows just how indefensible the BCSBS really is, is that a playoff system (or other proposal) will still have schools complaining about not being in the postseason. What the argument fails to recognize is that there is a big difference between school number three versus school number nine or seventeen.

College 1-A football is one of the only sports in America without a playoff system. Beauty pageants have better methods of determining its winner. This is a travesty because college football is also one of the most competitive sports. If you ask me, there are only three choices:

1. Have a playoff with more than just two teams. This is the right choice. The only one that makes sense. Read this article for a great idea on how this could work: The Wetzel Plan.

2. Replace the BCSBS with a lottery. Rather than try to pretend that some combination of polls and calculations can determine the best teams (need I refer to the last two presidential elections on the accuracy of such methods?), let's just do a pure lottery. The teams with the best records get more chances to win. If you want to "keep the regular season exciting" and still generate all the talk about the post season, do a lottery. Many sports fans are gamblers anyway (more profiteers from college athletes).

3. Go back to the way things were. If you can't or won't have a playoff, lets just do away with the farce of the BCSBS. It's obvious under the current system that we still don't know who the top two teams are in college football.


For a laugh: How the BCS Works

For more laughs: SEC Commish on College Playoff