tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29066645.post8743765269100918291..comments2023-09-09T06:14:27.969-04:00Comments on From The Bleachers: Requiem For Vanderbilt, AgainWill Collierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15125312209711458722noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29066645.post-70638652285672137302008-05-17T09:48:00.000-04:002008-05-17T09:48:00.000-04:00I'm amused by your comments about Alabama and Kent...I'm amused by your comments about Alabama and Kentucky paying players. True enough.<BR/><BR/>Have ye forgotten Eric Ramsey? And Terry Bowden's admission that that stuff continued despite his attempts to stop it?<BR/><BR/>Do not sit and throw stones when you live in a glass house, my friend.Maestrohhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05250175318263230849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29066645.post-32928414821150137262007-10-10T01:14:00.000-04:002007-10-10T01:14:00.000-04:00Following is adapted from a post written in respon...<I>Following is adapted from a post written in response to your post here.</I><BR/><BR/>Though I commented on this sort of thinking <A HREF="http://starandstripe.blogspot.com/2007/10/earning-respect-in-sec-football-has-to.html" REL="nofollow">on my own blog</A> before you brought it up this week, I just can't understand why you think this argument has merit.<BR/><BR/>Every season, there are SEC football teams who are as bad as us, and except for a stretch in the early 2000s, we beat SEC teams in football every year, both of the lower (Ole Miss), middle (Arkansas), and upper-tier (Tennessee & Georgia) variety. <BR/><BR/>Why in the world would we want to leave this conference and miss out on the money? <BR/><BR/>We usually represent the conference well playing outside the SEC (with the miserable excpetion of MTSU -- and let us not go into how much I hate them with all that I am), including our wins over ACC foes Wake Forest (the reigning ACC champ) and Duke, our wins against lesser I-A teams (like Temple, Eastern Michigan and (God help us make this true) Miami of Ohio later this year), too.<BR/><BR/>No, we don't beat the class of the SEC, but so what? <BR/><BR/>Neither does Ole Miss or Mississippi State or, until this year, Kentucky.<BR/><BR/>If the only argument for us to leave the SEC is because we don't go to a bowl game, you lose: no matter <B>which</B> SEC teams go to the bowls, the SEC will send the same number of teams and get the same amount of money.<BR/><BR/>If your reason for kicking us out is because we lose a lot, you lose the argument there, too. First of all, if we're not complaining, why are you wanting us to leave? Don't we give you a conference win? Don't we give you a I-A opponent to claim in your bowl record?<BR/><BR/>It would be ridiculous for us to leave the nation's best conference. <BR/><BR/>The reason folks who aren't Vanderfans think we should leave is because of the mentality they have about their own team. They imagine us Vanderfolks to be miserable and sad and down-trodden. After all, that's how they are when their football-powerhouse school is down in the dumps (witness UT before the Georgia win, Auburn after the Miss. State loss, and Georgia this week). <BR/><BR/>But with Vanderbilt that's just not the case. We don't work like that. <BR/><BR/>Yes, we hurt when our team loses, particularly when its in ugly fashion like this past Saturday on the Plains. <BR/><BR/>But the thing is -- and I think this is the reason an Auburn or a Florida or an LSU fan just can <B>not</B> understand us -- all of the hurting and losing and the being-the-butt-of-jokes is all worth it when we win.<BR/><BR/>When we go into 104,000 screaming, arnge-clad maniacs in Knoxville, with all their cheating and thuggery, and we come out victorious -- yes, it's the first time in 22 years, but that makes victory that much sweeter -- it is a feeling of exuberance that cannot be properly understood unless it is experienced.<BR/><BR/>Winning against a team like that, and doing it the right way -- and knowing that these kids are not stronger or faster, but that they won just the same... there's something incredibly uplifting and-- well, I really can't put it into words.<BR/><BR/>It's like the U.S. beating the Soviet Union in hockey. It's like watching Rudy get the win. Like the end of every good sports movie you've ever seen: the underdog, who has no chance but whose players do their best and try their hardest and play the <B>right</B> way, wins against all odds.<BR/><BR/>And that's why I cannot explain to you why we remain in the SEC, taking on the best the nation has to offer every week. <BR/><BR/>No, we usually don't win. But we try. Our players do their best and try their hardest. We play the right way, with young men who, while competing against the best in the nation on the field on Saturday, must also compete against the nation's best every day in the classroom to get the grades and stay on the team. <BR/><BR/>And when we do win, when we walk out of State U.'s stadium to the victorious strains of "Who ya with," it justifies every single year of so-called "futility." <BR/><BR/>That cheer sums up a lot about what it means to be a Commodore: it's about no matter what else happens and no matter what the rest of the SEC folk say, we're with VU, come what may.<BR/><BR/>You could say it's our own version of "We are Marshall."<BR/><BR/>This commitment -- that so many SEC fans find bewildering -- it's why Vanderbilt fans are the most loyal and the most committed fans in the SEC. It's why Vanderbilt players are among the most incredible student-athletes in the country, whether their win the national championship or not.<BR/><BR/>And it's why we will <B>not</B> go quietly into the non-SEC night.<BR/><BR/>Who ya with?<BR/><BR/>VU!Diezbahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02825803232804922096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29066645.post-78198326975834957612007-10-08T15:58:00.000-04:002007-10-08T15:58:00.000-04:00With whom do you plan to replace Vanderbilt, and w...With whom do you plan to replace Vanderbilt, and what are you going to do with their successor if they don't win enough games? And God forbid, how will you go on if the new team starts beating yours?<BR/><BR/>And how about this "they don't contribute to football revenue" business. Well let's see, they provide an opponent for you to beat, and that adds one more win to your bowl eligbility. Seriously, if the SEC replaced the four worst teams with Texas, Florida State, West Virginia and Missouri, there would be a lot fewer 2-6 conference records and a lot fewer 6-2 records. There are only 96 wins per year to go around.<BR/><BR/>If it were up to Vanderbilt would leave this den of theives their own devices. But until that day I'm going to enjoy the moments (and they do come) when we get to punch one of the theives in the nose.Craicerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11743041250526076391noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29066645.post-67623956897264831672007-10-08T08:18:00.000-04:002007-10-08T08:18:00.000-04:00Phillip, you're right; I should have said "footbal...Phillip, you're right; I should have said "football revenue." I've made a change accordingly.Will Collierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15125312209711458722noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29066645.post-77163016841401466122007-10-08T01:20:00.000-04:002007-10-08T01:20:00.000-04:00Yea, let's kick out Vanderbilt so that all the SEC...Yea, let's kick out Vanderbilt so that all the SEC schools could run esteemed sociology programs like the one at Auburn, admit Rhodes Scholars like Jerrell Powe, let someone arrested on felony charges play a few days later like Florida, pay for players like Bama and Kentucky, have high schools change grades for recruits so they can play SEC football like at Hoover, etc.<BR/><BR/>Do you think it's a coincidence that since 1982 (Vanderbilt's last bowl year) every other SEC school has been found guilty of at least 1 major infraction in its football program? In its history, Vanderbilt has exactly one major infraction, and that was for the women's basketball coach instructing players not to cooperate with an investigation.Willhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01260729645812302337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29066645.post-67197950801639222152007-10-07T23:42:00.000-04:002007-10-07T23:42:00.000-04:00I don't understand how you figure that men's hoops...I don't understand how you figure that men's hoops doesn't contribute revenue, with the $multibillion CBS contract and an SEC revenue sharing policy that's exactly the same as football. <BR/><BR/>Other than that relatively minor point, though, I only wish I disagreed with you. My biggest concern at this point is how to deal fairly with every other VU sports program besides football. I think the best options in order are (1) ACC (2) Big East (3) CUSA. <BR/><BR/>The ACC probably wouldn't be interested unless the SEC could arrange a trade for Florida State, which would be a match made in heaven in many different ways and expand the ACC to a pretty sizeable urban market though at the substantial cost of weakening their presence in the behemoth that is Florida. <BR/><BR/>The Big East would be a good match too -- with a ready multisports rivalry with Louisville, for one thing. The biggest problem there is the idea of adding a new school to a 16-team league. Again a trade would be ideal, but I don't think there's much in the BE that the SEC would be interested in, save maybe South Florida which is really superfluous. <BR/><BR/>I could live with CUSA. Memphis would be a great multisports rivalry (even their baseball is pretty good, like Louisville's). UAB would be another decent one.<BR/><BR/>Finally, a lot of our fans like to point out that recruiting would suffer if we left the SEC, as though they've just discovered the Rosetta Stone. To me that's obvious in football. Of course recruiting will suffer -- but we're always ~50th or worse nationally and 12th in the SEC anyway! But if our recruiting suffers a little bit, but the quality of our opponents decreases a whole lot, then we win a lot more games.That guyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09538943769759852913noreply@blogger.com