As the summer doldrums wind down and fall practice begins around the nation, it seems one more writer decided to pounce on Vanderbilt for its lack of accomplishments in conference on the football field. Mike Bianchi of The Orlando Sentinel argues that 1) Vanderbilt shouldn’t be in the SEC because they cannot compete and 2) Central Florida (Bianchi’s hometown university) should be in the SEC. Bianchi isn’t the only one making the argument for Vanderbilt to be expelled. It seems like we hear this same story or some variation every year (see Paul Finebaum on July 27 of this year). And every year, they are wrong.
To begin with, Vanderbilt hasn’t done anything to deserve to be expelled, and there is little (if any) sentiment among the league’s members to do so. Vanderbilt is a charter member of a league that values history. It doesn’t expel teams when they have bad seasons, or several bad seasons, or go on probation or have a scandal. In fact, few conferences do. (Big East and Temple excluded.)
Vanderbilt is only one season removed from their latest bowl appearance. Until the retiring of Bobby Johnson, they appeared to be a steadily improving program. (They may continue under Robbie Caldwell, but it’s too early to tell.) In the last six seasons they have beaten everyone in the East except Florida and have beaten the entire West except LSU and Alabama. Admittedly, they haven’t gone to any championship games, but that’s true of other teams as well.
Even if Vanderbilt hasn’t been as competitive on the football field as it would like, you can’t look at conference membership and merit without considering the other major sports as well. In basketball, for instance, Vandy has won the SEC regular season title three times, has been to an Elite Eight and 6 Sweet Sixteen’s, including 2004 and 2007. That’s not an unimpressive resume, and consider they finished 24-9 (12-4) last year. In baseball, the SEC’s third major sport, Vanderbilt has won 4 conference titles including as recently as 2007. They are competitive with the top of the conference every year and have been to the NCAA Tournament the last 5 years in a row.
The second part of Bianchi’s column says Central Florida would be more competitive in the conference and more committed to athletics than Vanderbilt is. To support this, he states that UCF has a bigger stadium and better football facilities than Vanderbilt, and he lists “a larger TV market, a bigger enrollment, a more fruitful recruiting area and a more diverse alumni base” as factors in UCF’s favor.
Taking each point in order, UCF does have a bigger stadium, but not by much. Bright House Networks Stadium, the Knights’ home, holds 45,301; Vanderbilt Stadium holds 39,790. That’s not much difference when you compare either to the rest of the SEC. If you look at attendance, the difference is even smaller. In 2009, UCF had an average of 38,078; Vanderbilt had 35,015. There’s no reason to exchange Vandy for UCF based on this factor.
The next point, better football facilities, is difficult to judge. What constitutes ‘better’ is a subjective matter that I don’t feel qualified to delve into here, so we’ll give UCF the benefit of the doubt and concede this point. That’s still not a reason to send an invitation to Orlando.
Of the next four factors Bianchi lists two of them have nothing to do with his argument at all. I don’t care about enrollment or diversity of alumni. I don’t see what either has to do with athletics, football or SEC membership.
In looking at TV markets, I have trouble finding good, reliable data about these, so I’ll use the Census Bureau’s Primary Statistical Areas as proxy. In that data pool Orlando is the 20th largest market; Nashville is the 37th. Here there is a quantitative difference, but not a real qualitative one, not to mention the Orlando market is already part of the SEC thanks to Florida.
Lastly, there is the matter of more fruitful recruiting area. I’m not sure where each of the teams concentrates its recruiting. I would assume, as Bianchi apparently has, that they focus on areas around the campuses, but I don’t think it would be unreasonable to suppose that each team also focuses on areas around their conferences as well. If that’s the case, then Vanderbilt’s recruiting area is just as fuitful and may be more so.
Vanderbilt isn’t the SEC’s flagship football program; no one argues that, but to argue they are so poor as a sports program that they should be expelled requires that you ignore the other major sports and only focus on Vanderbilt’s recent football shortcomings. Football is King, but it is not alone and Vanderbilt has every right to stay and deserves to. Oh, and if for some reason Vanderbilt were to part ways with the conference, I would expect calls to many, many other cities before Orlando gets a ring.
Here is Vanderbilt Sports Line responding to Bianchi’s article.
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