So, what's so great about Vanderbilt doing what they're doing?
Well, out of the entire pool of High School seniors that colleges can recruit from, 85 percent are academically ineligible to play at Vandy. They don't lower their academic standards for their athletes, and since, well, World War II, Vanderbilt has been one of the worst teams in college football.
Think about that, only 15 percent of recruit-able players would qualify at Vandy. That doesn't mean that all of those 15 percent go to Vandy, they still go to the bigger schools if they can, or scrap athletics altogether and head to the Ivy League for academic pursuits.
Other great academic schools relax standards for their athletes (I'm looking at you Corey Maggette at Duke); Vandy won't, and they've paid the price in football losses.
The University of Tennessee, Vandy's main rival, has a football recruiting budget of $1.5 million, including a private plane. Vanderbilt's recruiting budget for the entire athletic department is a notch over $500,000.
Vandy tonight beat Auburn, a team with legitimate hopes for an SEC Championship. Auburn's recruiting budget for football is only double what Vandy's ENTIRE budget is, but Auburn can recruit anyone (there are legendary stories of their athletes being illiterate, seriously), but Vandy beat them.
The crowd, filled with kids who got 1400 or better on their SATs, didn't storm the field, which has become a trite and annoying display in college football. The fans and kids displayed the class that so many schools and fans lack in college football (O-H-I-O). It's a ridiculous story, one that seriously sounds like a movie script, but Vandy is in first place in the SEC West, 5-0, and are bound for a good bowl game. And they have phenomenal uniforms!
No comments:
Post a Comment