Vanderbilt University - update

[Cheesesteak]

Vandy's return to 'mind, body and spirit' OK so far
March 23, 2004
By Dennis Dodd
SportsLine.com Senior Writer


The last time we left Vanderbilt six months ago -- which was for dead, you might recall -- its athletic department was in shambles. Check that -- there was no athletic department.

In September, Vandy chancellor Gordon Gee folded the department in with the Office of Students, Recreation and Wellness.

The way the media read it, the coed intramural inner tube water polo team was under the same umbrella as football and basketball. Athletic director Todd Turner, the man responsible for more than $50 million in facilities upgrades, was told basically his services were no longer needed.

It wasn't just the department. Vanderbilt's athletic reputation was in shambles.

"I was very concerned with the way it came out," basketball coach Kevin Stallings said. "The way in which it was presented really left a lot of questions to be answered and a lot of uncertainties. When you started reading things like 'intramurals' in the same sentence with 'varsity athletics,' it caused great concern for a lot of people. There were a lot of fires that we had to put out as a result from the way it was released."

Rival schools didn't have to negative recruit. All they had to do was pull out the newspaper. The eggheads at one of the most revered institutions in the country, it seemed, had cracked.

"This is a different way of thinking," Gee said at the time. "It's a return to the first principles of why we started playing games at universities in the first place -- for a confluence of mind and body and spirit."

Gee was no doubt reminded at some point that this was the SEC, not rhythmic gymnastics. Being reform-minded is one thing, but this was an athletic lobotomy.

Well, a funny thing happened on the way to the all-fraternity flag football finals:

Both the men's and women's basketball teams are in the Sweet 16 this week;
the baseball team began the week in the top 25;
freshman golfer Luke List qualified for the U.S. Open as a high school senior;
women's tennis is ranked fourth.

Yes, the long-suffering football program finished last in SEC recruiting, but that can be interpreted as holding its own. The top seven classes in the conference were ranked among the top 22 nationally.

These are short-term evaluations, but for now Gee's Grand Experiment has graduated from joke status to the curiosity stage. Maybe a major college can scale down and move up at the same time. Maybe the perfect utopian blend of athletics and academics is one baby step closer than it was six months ago.

"We've had an awfully good recruiting season," said vice chancellor David Williams, who oversees athletics. "A lot of the kids in football and basketball have said, 'That's exactly what we're looking for.' ... Initially, we had to get over a hump. We had one kid that said, 'Everybody kept telling me how bad you all were and never told me how good they were.'"

That's what Vanderbilt is counting on. The negative PR generated in September was overwhelming. Many of the wounds were self-inflicted. Gee didn't exactly do a good job of managing information when he made the announcement. Coaches, fans, even administrators, were caught by surprise.

We'll see if the school continues to attract players like Matt Freije, who scored 31 Sunday in the second round against North Carolina State. The senior came to Vanderbilt before the reorganization four years ago from Overland Park, Kan.

Stallings, a former Kansas assistant, only started recruiting Freije after asking his old boss, Roy Williams, for permission. Freije's Shawnee Mission West High School is only 35 miles from Lawrence, but Williams already had a kid named Nick Collison.

"I only took one official visit," said Freije the school's career leading scorer. "I knew then I wanted to come here and sign here."

Vanderbilt doesn't often get that top-shelf combination of athlete/student in the major sports.

The Commodores are in the tournament and in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1993 largely because of him. The question is, will there be another Freije at Vandy? With the school's downsizing, the Freije's of the future -- smart enough to graduate, talented enough to play -- might give more attention to Stanford, Duke or Northwestern.

"While we're happy, I don't (want) to say the restructuring did it," Stallings said. "The coaches did it. The players did it. I think it shows you can take a different approach and be successful. When the team came back, we had 500 people waiting 1 1/2, 2 hours at the gym. I had oldtimers tell me we never seen anything like this."

That's why the real hero in this latest Vandy upturn might be Turner. He should have never been forced from his job.

Gee offered Turner a special-assistant-to-the-chancellor position that was below him. In fact, by his mere position Turner had been a national leader in reform. Turner is still chairman of the NCAA's Incentives/Disincentives Committee that is proposing sweeping academic reform.

The respected administrator was responsible for new baseball, soccer, lacrosse and football practice facilities before he left. He was criticized for waiting so long to hire a women's basketball coach, but Melanie Balcomb, in her second year, has been a hit.

In the space of six months, the national mood has changed in major-college athletics. There is a general leaning toward real athletic reform. Some might call the leaning toward the radical right.

The ongoing Colorado recruiting fiasco is not over but it has been addressed. The school put in strict recruiting guidelines that could cause the football program to be at a competitive disadvantage with other schools.

But just like Vanderbilt, Colorado was looking at the big picture -- not football Saturdays -- when it made its reforms.

As a way to explain the downsizing, Gee and Williams began giving personal attention to recruits on campus. Both formerly worked at Ohio State where football is king. Vanderbilt is decidedly not a football power. It hasn't been to a bowl in more than 20 years and competes in the smallest stadium in the SEC (Vanderbilt Stadium, 39,773).

The view from six months out doesn't prove Gee's experiment has necessarily worked or failed.

For now, all we know is that Vandy is thriving in some areas and pretty much perking along the way it was before September. The reorganization has to be a tremendous burden to Vandy coaches trying to compete on the SEC level.

The perception of a downgraded athletic department alone can be enough to wreck recruiting.

"I had a couple of parents of a great football player," Williams said. "I said, 'If you're looking for a place to go where you're just going to play football as a next step to the pros, don't come here.' I'm just thrilled that that was one of the kids that decided to come here."

That can happen at Duke, Stanford and Northwestern, too. But look at the condition of the Duke, Stanford and Northwestern programs. The Wildcats got into a bowl game last year only because they were in the Big Ten. Stanford is struggling under Buddy Teevens. Duke football is in a parallel universe compared to Duke basketball.

News flash but the best players continue to go to the best programs because those programs provide the best opportunities for the NFL. Vanderbilt's best recruit is top 10 tight end, Brad Allen of Venice, Fla. Like his fellow recruits, Allen was looking for good academics, which means he probably wasn't going to consider other SEC programs in the first place.

Stallings this week preferred to ignore the subject in the build-up to the Sweet 16.

"I don't think it has impacted anything that has happened with our basketball team," Stallings said. "This is more of a statement about our basketball program. This has got nothing to do with nothing that has happened administratively."

Very soon, though, it will. Athletic reputations aren't rebuilt in a week. Recruits know that.

[Cheesesteak]

The Commodores are in the tournament and in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1993 largely because of him. The question is, will there be another Freije at Vandy? With the school's downsizing, the Freije's of the future -- smart enough to graduate, talented enough to play -- might give more attention to Stanford, Duke or Northwestern.

"While we're happy, I don't (want) to say the restructuring did it," Stallings said. "The coaches did it. The players did it. I think it shows you can take a different approach and be successful. When the team came back, we had 500 people waiting 1 1/2, 2 hours at the gym. I had oldtimers tell me we never seen anything like this."

That's why the real hero in this latest Vandy upturn might be Turner. He should have never been forced from his job.

Gee offered Turner a special-assistant-to-the-chancellor position that was below him. In fact, by his mere position Turner had been a national leader in reform. Turner is still chairman of the NCAA's Incentives/Disincentives Committee that is proposing sweeping academic reform.

The respected administrator was responsible for new baseball, soccer, lacrosse and football practice facilities before he left. He was criticized for waiting so long to hire a women's basketball coach, but Melanie Balcomb, in her second year, has been a hit.

In the space of six months, the national mood has changed in major-college athletics. There is a general leaning toward real athletic reform. Some might call the leaning toward the radical right.

The ongoing Colorado recruiting fiasco is not over but it has been addressed. The school put in strict recruiting guidelines that could cause the football program to be at a competitive disadvantage with other schools.

But just like Vanderbilt, Colorado was looking at the big picture -- not football Saturdays -- when it made its reforms.

As a way to explain the downsizing, Gee and Williams began giving personal attention to recruits on campus. Both formerly worked at Ohio State where football is king. Vanderbilt is decidedly not a football power. It hasn't been to a bowl in more than 20 years and competes in the smallest stadium in the SEC (Vanderbilt Stadium, 39,773).

The view from six months out doesn't prove Gee's experiment has necessarily worked or failed.

For now, all we know is that Vandy is thriving in some areas and pretty much perking along the way it was before September. The reorganization has to be a tremendous burden to Vandy coaches trying to compete on the SEC level.

The perception of a downgraded athletic department alone can be enough to wreck recruiting.

"I had a couple of parents of a great football player," Williams said. "I said, 'If you're looking for a place to go where you're just going to play football as a next step to the pros, don't come here.' I'm just thrilled that that was one of the kids that decided to come here."

That can happen at Duke, Stanford and Northwestern, too. But look at the condition of the Duke, Stanford and Northwestern programs. The Wildcats got into a bowl game last year only because they were in the Big Ten. Stanford is struggling under Buddy Teevens. Duke football is in a parallel universe compared to Duke basketball.

News flash but the best players continue to go to the best programs because those programs provide the best opportunities for the NFL. Vanderbilt's best recruit is top 10 tight end, Brad Allen of Venice, Fla. Like his fellow recruits, Allen was looking for good academics, which means he probably wasn't going to consider other SEC programs in the first place.

Stallings this week preferred to ignore the subject in the build-up to the Sweet 16.

"I don't think it has impacted anything that has happened with our basketball team," Stallings said. "This is more of a statement about our basketball program. This has got nothing to do with nothing that has happened administratively."

Very soon, though, it will. Athletic reputations aren't rebuilt in a week. Recruits know that.

[Water Pony]

Thanks Cheesesteak. A son at SMU and a daughter, who just graduated from Vanderbilt, makes me a glutton for punishment in their revenue sports, except for VU BB.

Reforms should improve the value and attractiveness of schools, which can combine the pursuit success while demonstrating a strong commitment to academics and, most importantly, progress in graduating student-athletes.

I think chasing the state school model is a no win situation for us. But success in developing students and athletes could be our strike zone. They are not incompatiable: Duke (BB), Stanford (all sports), Notre Dame (all sports), Northwestern (all sports), Rice (Baseball), Wake Forest (BB), etc.

Find the right model and make it happen. We can't out spend the state schools.

[CoxSMU]

Question is, WaterPony and all, which sport would you pick to be our "model" sport? Let's also say we have the opportunity to get baseball....Which one would it be for everyone? Baseball? Football? Basketball? I love, love football, but my sport is basketball.....

[EastStang]

Right now it appears to be soccer and Golf. Our women and men compete at the national level year in and year out. We recruit the bluest of chips for both teams. I would say that soccer is our best sport right now. Golf a close second. We will never add baseball, just too many women's scholarships and sports to add to balance it out. We'd probably have to add women's softball and lacrosse just to even it out.

[NavyCrimson]

it's incredible how baseball has become such a popular sport the last 10 years & its still growing...maybe we can find a big donor some day?

who would have ever thought?

[gostangs]

Water P - while you list some impressive schools - how many of the revenue programs that are nationally successful truely have real college students in them. I would say none - certainly no basketball or football schools. The private schools that have done well in their revenue sports have done so because they make HUGE exceptions in admissions and in "degree offerings" - (Miami FB, Wake Forest BB, Duke BB, Notre Dame anything, USC FB etc).

In revenue sports there is no such thing as student athletes in winning programs.

There is not a state school and private school model - there is a winning model, and a non-winning model - the way the rules are set at the moment that means making exceptions. There is no choice.

[Water Pony]

Couple of points:

By definition, in Texas and at SMU, the only sport that matters to the alumni is FB. If the question is where we can be competitve faster, you would probably say BB. If it is which one do we rank the best and are competitive against the best in the country, it is soccer.

My state school argument reflects the build-in bias that rewards large enrollments, alumni rolls and TV Revenue and who travels the best favor the state schools.

Long term, our hope is probably to level the playing field. Reforms, which reward graduation progress and rates and clean programs while valuing sports and academics, need to occur. Our odds long term depend on a model which we can compete on. If it is based primarily on revenue generation, we will always be at a disadvantage. In today's world, what is the option that we can sustain? We need to be committed to success, work our a** off and hope for tighter controls to reduce huge advantage the state schools have.