Will Vanderbilt ever improve?

Vanderbilt football is a mess, and it’s been a mess for decades. In fact, it’s only had 5 winning seasons since 1970.

The Commodores record in the SEC is a laughable 141-452, and the bills at home games are paid for by away fans. Lots of away fans.

But amid all this crap, Vanderbilt has stayed pretty loyal (only 12 head coaches during that time), because there’s no point in hiring and firing people if you have a distinct lack of expectancy.

In that history, good head coaches at Vanderbilt move to bigger things (James Franklin to Penn State, Gerry DiNardo to LSU), or straight-up sucked themselves into retirement.

One of the biggest things coaches have blamed the lack of success on is the factor that Vanderbilt’s higher academic requirements meant that the school could not recruit the caliber of players that would help them succeed in the SEC (read into that what you will).

Vanderbilt, a top tier school with a 7.1% acceptance rate and the price to go there is in the top 5% in the country,  and it’s total enrollment is just 7,000, which is tiny compared to the state schools that it tries to compete with. And the fact that it’s really, really hard means that kids are more likely to be studying for the Math test than living it up on the sidelines.

So in other words, if you ain’t a bright football player, you ain’t getting into Vanderbilt.

THE FUNDRAISING

Vanderbilt has a project called ‘Vandy United’, which aims to enhance the school’s athletic infrastructure.

Aided by tax kickbacks from the government, the rich people like to give back to the school that made them, and Vanderbilt has high-fived its way into people’s pockets, raising an astonishing $323 million in 2023 alone (Their aim is $3.2 billion).

But gifts to athletics are – by comparison to SEC schools – tiny. Sure, the school raised $7.2m on a Giving Day in April to support all of Vandy’s sports, but when you’re dwarfed by everyone else in the league and maybe in FBS, can you even compete?

The only even ground for everybody is SEC’s $55 million payment from ESPN, which is going to go up to $125 million when the second deal kicks in in 2024. That money is going to go on their athletics programs and the stuff surrounding it – it can’t just get put into the kitty to bribe the best smart kids to come there (plus, Notre Dame can pay more!). But bigger schools like Alabama can enhance that by building better facilities for other sports, enhancing revenue when people get their butts through the door (wait until Texas does it’s thing next year, baby!). Vanderbilt’s behind the 8 ball in building stuff.

BOTTOM LINE, IT’S ABOUT THE NIL MONEY

Vanderbilt’s ‘Anchor Impact’ Fund has raised $2.1 million, according to On3. In comparison, Ole Miss – forever a mid-tier SEC program – has raised $10 million. The University down the road? $13.5 million. 

The biggest recent example of this would be Ray Davis, who ran for 1,042 yards for the ‘Dores. Now, he could have been paid a big check by Vanderbilt to stay there for a graduate year (he’s got a degree from there already), but Kentucky’s cash came calling (the rumors are about $490,000 worth), and he moved. So did linebacker Elijah MacAllister, who moved to Auburn ($100,000).

The bottom line is this: Vanderbilt is able to graduate ’em, but they can’t keep ’em. But is there a willingness to make that happen?

We doubt it. People don’t like being associated with a ‘loser program’. And Vanderbilt – despite Clark Lea’s arrival and new excitement about new facilities – is still just that.

The $300M Vandy United fund may change all that. The football operations and basketball operations upgrade may vault Commodore Football into the 21st Century.

But unless the school lowers its academic barriers (not going going to happen) it’s big competition isn’t so much Cal or Stanford (it can easily win those ones), it’s the big school up North: Notre Dame. And then you have to deal with the Catholics.

As one Vanderbilt fan put it to this blog: “Vanderbilt’s biggest long-term barrier, however, is simply numbers. It’s the same barrier that other schools will face. Smaller enrollment, smaller alumni and fan base, smaller potential for NIL. NIL will quickly shrink the number of schools capable of playing bigtime football, and it has nothing to do with facilities, tradition, market size, academics, or anything else. Vanderbilt won’t be the only school unable to compete on that playing field. The numbers simply aren’t there.”