Any Vandy fans out there?

[Toga]

As I and others have said - Vandy belongs in the ACC. Heck - I'd trade N.C. State straight up to get em.

They have a certain panache and are a premier academic school sitting in a large metro area.
A (mostly) good guy straightshooter living with a gang of outlaws. Sure they are a founding member of the SEC - so there is that. But nothing is forever. They are sitting on a $3+ billion endowment so in the grand scheme of things, money is no object and since they abolished the athletic department years ago - it's not like they AD has a specific revenue/expenses goal (that I know of).

For anyone familar with Vandy - are they really that tied to being with the Mississippi States of the world? Could anything convince them to join? A Vandy/ND tandem?

 

[Crusty]

Vandy is not going anywhere.

 

[orange79]

Not unless we give them a double share.

 

[richard levy]

i'm a vandy grad, my daughter just graduated from vandy last year. I've always been a fan of the bball and suffered through the fball. Vandy is all lit up about football now. They are renegotiating James Franklin's contract for the second year in a row with an ever increasing buy-out. Have also made a major commitment to improving the football facilities, breaking ground for an indoor practice facility, upgrading the football stadium, athletic facilities and weight room, mostly with private donations. The alums have been waiting a lifetime for this. First time the administration has outwardly supported it as well. They get so much money from SEC football and have a long history with the SEC, it would be highly unlikely for them to leave. If there are going to be 4-5 superconferences, the SEC is going to be there and I think Vandy stays.
I love to read how the people on this board go on an on about Syracuse football. I root for and follow the Orange, but I don't think people realize how close to being irrevelant we are in football, especially compared to the SEC. If you haven't been to a football game at most of the SEC schools, you wouldn't believe it. Twice as many fans ( not at Vandy, yet) in the parking lot than the 70-90K fans in the stadiums. Recruiting- even if you only believe in the ranking system a little bit, of the top 25 ranked recruiting classes, over half the schools are SEC and already have most of their class filled with 3-4 stars. Vandy is working on their second top 25 class, currently about 15-17 ranked. LSU, BAMA, GA, FL, A&M, SC. Imagine a schedule with 3 or more those teams every year. Vandy got smoked by GA this year, but narrowly lost to FL and SC, and like us lost to Northwestern, of course, that was 4 of Vandy's first six games, and like SYR, bounced back to win out the rest of the way. Anchor Down

 

[All4SU]

Vandy is not going anywhere.

Agree Vandy is a nice fit for the ACC. Agree Vandy isn't going anywhere. Agree Vandy will always be second fiddle to The Vols as long as they are both in the SEC.

 

[tep624]

As I and others have said - Vandy belongs in the ACC. Heck - I'd trade N.C. State straight up to get em.

They have a certain panache and are a premier academic school sitting in a large metro area.
A (mostly) good guy straightshooter living with a gang of outlaws. Sure they are a founding member of the SEC - so there is that. But nothing is forever. They are sitting on a $3+ billion endowment so in the grand scheme of things, money is no object and since they abolished the athletic department years ago - it's not like they AD has a specific revenue/expenses goal (that I know of).

For anyone familar with Vandy - are they really that tied to being with the Mississippi States of the world? Could anything convince them to join? A Vandy/ND tandem?

Incremental TV $$$'s are not going to drive Vandy's decision on it's conference affiliation. A $3.4B endowment will do that for you.

I'd be curious to hear what someone who is a Vandy insider has to say on it - someone with actual knowledge, rather than the constant reinforcement from our resident experts that Vandy has the same priorities as MD.

 

[richard levy]

Agree Vandy is a nice fit for the ACC. Agree Vandy isn't going anywhere. Agree Vandy will always be second fiddle to The Vols as long as they are both in the SEC.

except for this year and as long a CJF stays at Vandy. How did that Dooley work out for you

 

[MaxwellCuse]

Thanks for the run down richard. I agree that Vandy will not be leaving the SEC despite its' being a perfect fit for the ACC.

I wouldn't sell SU fans short regarding our knowledge of SEC football culture, regardless of whether we've attended a game or not. Football is a religion in that part of the country. It's merely a pasttime up north. We get it. But I'll tell you -- I don't really care. Last I saw more than a minute of SEC football was last year's NC game. Saw about 5 minutes worth of it. That was enough.

 

[All4SU]

except for this year

Well, technically they still are because UT is a strong brand, and Vandy is not.

 

[javadoc]

I root for and follow the Orange, but I don't think people realize how close to being irrevelant we are in football, especially compared to the SEC.

We are not anywhere near irrelevant in football, and you can see it from the reaction that people are having. The reaction to football success at Rutgers or Vanderbilt is, "Whoa, that's interesting." For us it is, "Ahhh, welcome back."

For the record I would love to have Vandy in the ACC. Ideological branding. Private schools unite!

 

[Crusty]

The SEC football is very good but not uniformly so. Half the SEC is very ordinary.

 

[richard levy]

The SEC football is very good but not uniformly so. Half the SEC is very ordinary.

true of every conference, even for Big East Bball. Its the upper half which seperates a conference

 

[tep624]

true of every conference, even for Big East Bball. Its the upper half which seperates a conference

As someone who attended Vandy - what's it like culturally on campus? Is there a strong affiliation to the deep south like you see at other SEC schools or does it have more the profile of a border state. Just trying to get a feel if it would be more comfortable around southeast/northeast schools than deep south/southern midwest schools.

 

[SUFaninNJ]

Just Buster Olney

 

[kingottoiii]

i'm a vandy grad, my daughter just graduated from vandy last year. I've always been a fan of the bball and suffered through the fball. Vandy is all lit up about football now. They are renegotiating James Franklin's contract for the second year in a row with an ever increasing buy-out. Have also made a major commitment to improving the football facilities, breaking ground for an indoor practice facility, upgrading the football stadium, athletic facilities and weight room, mostly with private donations. The alums have been waiting a lifetime for this. First time the administration has outwardly supported it as well. They get so much money from SEC football and have a long history with the SEC, it would be highly unlikely for them to leave. If there are going to be 4-5 superconferences, the SEC is going to be there and I think Vandy stays.

Would Vandy have more support if they actually had a chance at winning a conference title? Let's be honest 3rd place in the SEC East would be a miracle season for Vandy. Tenn won't be down for long and you won't have easy Western crossover games every year. For a school that doesn't need the money and cares first about academics, would the opportunity to actually make a BCS Bowl in the ACC be enticing enough?

 

[richard levy]

When i graduated in 79, the student body had more of a southeast regional bent than it is now, much more of a national university now, need 1400+/1600 on your SAT. Greek system still big, 50% of campus. Unlike in previous years, student attendence at football games was paltry, too much losing. But the student attendence at the UTenn game on the saturday after thanksgiving vacation had begun, was huge, usually everyone is traveling. The coach has made a huge effort to recruit the students, making visits to every frat/sorority, made a youtube thanking the students for their attendence, has the players go over to the student section to sing the alma mater. students come from all over so no regional allegiance, only to the school studying and fun

As someone who attended Vandy - what's it like culturally on campus? Is there a strong affiliation to the deep south like you see at other SEC schools or does it have more the profile of a border state. Just trying to get a feel if it would be more comfortable around southeast/northeast schools than deep south/southern midwest schools.

he

 

[richard levy]

Would Vandy have more support if they actually had a chance at winning a conference title? Let's be honest 3rd place in the SEC East would be a miracle season for Vandy. Tenn won't be down for long and you won't have easy Western crossover games every year. For a school that doesn't need the money and cares first about academics, would the opportunity to actually make a BCS Bowl in the ACC be enticing enough?

Franklin's sales pitch to recruits is 1) go to one of the best academic schools in the country, 2) play in the best football conference in the country, 3) be in one of the best cities in the country, and 4) at least for the time being, the chance for early playing time.
Every school needs money. Even the Ivies, who have the largest endowments need money. State schools are larger, get state funding and have a larger alumni base. Believe me Vandy is all about money
Tenn is going to have a tough road back, they aren't exactly having coaches clamoring for the open job, Vandy badly out recruited them for the few top state players, Kimbrow and Jelks
Personally, when you have to compete against the outlaw schools like Bama, et al, I don't see Vandy ever playing for the national title, but possibly getting to the conf champ game doesn't seem so far fetched as it once did. The east is more winnable than the west. Vandy did have a favorable schedule this year, didn't have to play Bama/LSU, but we did play FL, GA, and SC, and without belaboring the point, two of those games this year were within our grasp, and as the recruitng binge continues and we get even better, well, I believe in James Franklin

 

[cto]

I think I was the first person here (a month or so ago) to suggest that Vandy would be the ideal next member of the ACC. Everything about them is an ACC school. Billy McCaffrey, anyone? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_McCaffrey Vandy has zero resemblance to any SEC school. They are much more like Duke, BC Wake Forest, ND or SU.

 

[richard levy]

We are not anywhere near irrelevant in football, and you can see it from the reaction that people are having. The reaction to football success at Rutgers or Vanderbilt is, "Whoa, that's interesting." For us it is, "Ahhh, welcome back."

For the record I would love to have Vandy in the ACC. Ideological branding. Private schools unite!

irrelevant nationally, but certainly not locally. I think most people wonder why a team from the Big East gets included in the BCS every year, or at least the past several years

 

[Crusty]

Absent a financial necessity as in the case of MD or Rutgers, Vandy is the most highly regarded football conference and has absolutely no reason to leave. What are they going to do - tell the SEC they are too good for them? Good way to get lynched.

 

[NashvilleOrange]

I'm an SU alum living in Nashville and have tossed around this idea before. If Vandy can keep Franklin around for a few more years they'll be a consistent bowl team and would be a premier team in the ACC. The SEC stands to make a tremendous amount of money once the new network is formed, with or without NC State and VT, and this would definitely discourage Vanderbilt from leaving the conference. The profile definitely matches up better with the ACC than SEC but the tradition and premier status of the conference are hard to leave behind.

 

[OrangeBlood]

Yesterday in the other thread I brought up how much I liked the idea of Vandy in the ACC. I like the idea of strong, private academic institution together.

That said, it will never happen. The SEC $ is overwhelming compared to the ACC. No way they leave that for a "better fit". Realignment is about dollars and cents, not about Books and Class Size.

Richard, I appreciate your insight into your alma mater, Vandy. Very interesting. I have to both agree and disagree with you on your assessment on SU. I agree with you that most people believe that the Big East receiving a automatic BCS bid is crazy. I even think it is. WVU proved a lot of people wrong last year and in the past. Now however, I fear Rutgers or UofL will get smacked.

I disagree however that SU is completely irrelevant nationally. SU is a national brand. We have a ton of alums and fans in basically every major city on the east coast and even a lot in LA. Look all of the pub our BBall team gets. The reason SU FBall hasn't got the pub is because we have been down. If we ever returned to being a usual 8-10 win team, we would be completely relevant. WVU got a ton of pub early in the year in the BIG 12. If we make a run next year we would get the same publicity.

Also, there is no doubt the top of SEC is the best in CFB and its not even close. However, the bottom 6-8 are just as good as SU.

 

[nzm136]

There is beyond a zero % chance of Vandy bolting to the ACC any time soon. That idea was bounced around in the 90's and early 2000's and i have personally heard Gordon Gee (vandy's old supreme high commander) shoot it down. Since then, SEC football has become an even bigger deal, the ACC has taken a hit, and Vandy athletics have improved a LOT.

That said, the whole SU is irrelevant in football statement is pure BS.

 

[OrangeMojo]

If Franklin sticks around and Vandy does this right, I can see them at some point having a string of success like Stanford is currently having. Not to the same level due to the level of competition - but a string of multiple years where they're in the mix for their division in the SEC and possibly getting to the conference championship game.

 

[nzm136]

If Franklin sticks around and Vandy does this right, I can see them at some point having a string of success like Stanford is currently having. Not to the same level due to the level of competition - but a string of multiple years where they're in the mix for their division in the SEC and possibly getting to the conference championship game.

Vandy will never be on the same level as UF, UGA, USC, or UT (when they are on). Vandy will fight to be the middle of their division, but they will never seriously contend for the top spot of their division. Yes, there may be years where they beat one or two of those teams, and there are years where they will play some of them close (most years actually), but they will never seriously challenge all those teams at once. Vandy has climbed as high in the rankings as they are going to climb. It is easy to say that they are improving, and they very well might be, but keep in mind that UT is down, and that will not last much longer. Not only will that cost Vandy a spot in the rankings, but it will hurt their recruiting. MIZZOU also has the potential to climb past Vandy. After 4-5 years of recruiting SEC talent and adapting to the SEC style of play, they will be formidable. In short, Vandy coul dbe pretty good, but they have to deal with the #3, #7, and #10 teams in the country in their division, and they have Tennessee and Mizzou waiting in the wings.