Vandy & SEC article....Must read...
Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2000 4:59 pmgreat article....makes u think...what will the future hold for us???
Does Vandy really belong in the SEC?
By Mike Organ / Sports Writer
First of two parts.
Vanderbilt's fit in the Southeastern Conference is sort of like the weather. Everybody complains about it, but no one is quite sure what to do.
As another disappointing football season unfolds after such high expectations, Vanderbilt's hierarchy has at least begun saying it is open to discussing possible changes.
The changes don't necessarily include moving to another league, but instead rethinking the way Vanderbilt conducts business in one of the nation's toughest football conferences.
"We have to make certain that we do very well in our Olympic sports. That is the way that Stanford did it," said Chancellor Gordon Gee, who has been on the job since August. "And then we have to make certain that we are very committed to basketball because I think we can be competitive naturally and immediately in basketball.
"And then you build your football program. But clearly, when you're the smallest institution with huge state institutions as part of the portfolio it puts you at a comparative disadvantage."
Vanderbilt, the only private school in the SEC, doesn't share many philosophical beliefs with the other 11 conference schools, and with 5,885 students is nowhere close in enrollment. In some instances, Vanderbilt's coaching staff can't play by the same rules as coaches at other SEC schools.
But Vanderbilt receives big money for being in the SEC -- from big crowds that come to see SEC teams at Vanderbilt Stadium to the conference's lucrative television contract to the SEC teams that participate in bowl games. Vanderbilt's athletic department received $6.5 million last year for being a member of the SEC.
"All of our history and traditions are in the Southeastern Conference," Athletic Director Todd Turner said. "It would be difficult if not impossible to walk away from that."
But if leaving the conference isn't an option to help improve Vanderbilt's football performance, are there other options? And is Vanderbilt serious about exploring those options?
Out of their league
Put simply, Vanderbilt has been unable to compete on the gridiron in the SEC.
In the past 40 football seasons, the Commodores have had a winning record against SEC opponents once. They have gone winless in the SEC for 10 of the past 25 seasons and appear headed that way again.
Vanderbilt's two victories this season were against Duke and Wake Forest, a couple of winless Atlantic Coast Conference programs. What's left this season? Three SEC opponents.
In a perfect football world Vanderbilt would simply drop out of the SEC and join another league and be able to generate the same revenue. But the reality is that Vanderbilt's not going anywhere and must find a way to step up to the competition without jeopardizing its strong academic reputation.
Earlier this season, Gee sat in Groves Stadium at Wake Forest, watching a rare Commodores victory. He spoke hypothetically about Vanderbilt's chances of jumping to any league in which it could be competitive in football.
"Obviously there are many institutional reasons why we would fit better perhaps into another league," Gee said. "But we have such strong relationships with the SEC, and it's a wonderful league. As an athletic league there are few, if any, that are better.
"But in terms of like-minded academic institutions I would love to have the 'Magnolia League' -- Duke, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt and Tulane and a couple of other institutions."
Another person well-versed in Vandy football also sees better fits for the program.
"I think the ACC is a good fit for Vanderbilt," said Gerry DiNardo, Vanderbilt's football coach from 1991-94. "If you look at Wake Forest and Duke, there are some private schools. North Carolina is also a highly respected school."
In the spring of 1996, the specially appointed Vanderbilt Committee on Athletics concluded nearly a yearlong study on moving to another conference or even dropping to Division III. The committee approached the ACC at that time, but ACC officials showed no interest. The VCA eventually decided Vanderbilt should remain in the SEC.
John Rich, a member of the Vanderbilt Board of Trust who co-chaired the VCA with John Hall, said the committee's mission was to prove to alumni and fans that Vanderbilt hadn't given up on athletics and was searching for answers.
"We went out to Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, and some of us went to some places and looked at Division III schools," Rich said. "I went to [former SEC member] Tulane to see what would be involved in getting out of the conference. Somebody else went to [former SEC member] Georgia Tech.
"The main thrust was that we went to Duke, Northwestern and Stanford because Northwestern had had some success -- they went to the Rose Bowl -- and of course Duke has had some good records. And with Stanford winning the Sears [all-sports] Trophy just about every year, those were the schools that we could identify with scholastically."
Rich said alumni made it clear to the committee they did not want Vanderbilt to leave the SEC.
The ACC, by the way, still isn't accepting applications. Said ACC Associate Commissioner Tom Mickle: "We seriously looked into expansion a year ago and decided not to."
Academics and athletics
In 1962, Art Guepe gave up after 10 seasons as head coach of the Commodores. He said Vanderbilt, with greater academic demands than other schools in the league, could not be Harvard Monday through Friday and Alabama on Saturday.
Some would say not much has changed.
After experiencing moderate success, DiNardo saw the handwriting on the wall and bolted for the chance to coach at another SEC school, LSU, in 1994.
Woody Widenhofer is the 10th coach in the last 40 years to try and help Vanderbilt fit in the SEC. He hasn't given up and isn't pushing for a move to another conference. But he would like to play by more of the same rules the rest of the league's coaches follow.
"The reason the SEC is a great league is because the football teams in our league are able to recruit junior college players, and they are able to get NCAA academic non-qualifiers in school,," Widenhofer said. "Those are things we don't do at Vanderbilt.
"I think there are definite advantages for those teams. And I don't blame them for using them because they can."
Widenhofer said he would appreciate some leniency from the admissions committee. Athletic departments at schools such as North Carolina, Duke and Tulane receive academic exceptions -- student-athletes who don't meet the normal guidelines set by the school, but still are admitted.
"I would like to see them allow some kids in like that and hold the coaches accountable for how they do in school," Widenhofer said. "If we keep them eligible, make sure they do well in school, then allow us to keep doing that."
Vanderbilt's tough admissions policy has long been an issue for coaches, not just in football, and remains the biggest roadblock to the Commodores being competitive in the SEC.
"These [SEC] teams look at 140 possible players each year in recruiting while we look at 100 [academically qualified to be admitted to Vanderbilt]," Rich said. "Over time that's hard to overcome."
But Turner said it's not nearly as difficult today to get athletes without stellar academic transcripts into Vanderbilt as it used to be.
"We have had people who have been all but non-qualifiers that have for one reason or another been able to get in and graduate from Vanderbilt," Turner said. "There are not many; they have to be exceptional in another way.
"Our standard for admission could be as low as the SEC's if the person presents a profile that, in the judgment of our faculty, allows them the chance to graduate. And we've had ki
Does Vandy really belong in the SEC?
By Mike Organ / Sports Writer
First of two parts.
Vanderbilt's fit in the Southeastern Conference is sort of like the weather. Everybody complains about it, but no one is quite sure what to do.
As another disappointing football season unfolds after such high expectations, Vanderbilt's hierarchy has at least begun saying it is open to discussing possible changes.
The changes don't necessarily include moving to another league, but instead rethinking the way Vanderbilt conducts business in one of the nation's toughest football conferences.
"We have to make certain that we do very well in our Olympic sports. That is the way that Stanford did it," said Chancellor Gordon Gee, who has been on the job since August. "And then we have to make certain that we are very committed to basketball because I think we can be competitive naturally and immediately in basketball.
"And then you build your football program. But clearly, when you're the smallest institution with huge state institutions as part of the portfolio it puts you at a comparative disadvantage."
Vanderbilt, the only private school in the SEC, doesn't share many philosophical beliefs with the other 11 conference schools, and with 5,885 students is nowhere close in enrollment. In some instances, Vanderbilt's coaching staff can't play by the same rules as coaches at other SEC schools.
But Vanderbilt receives big money for being in the SEC -- from big crowds that come to see SEC teams at Vanderbilt Stadium to the conference's lucrative television contract to the SEC teams that participate in bowl games. Vanderbilt's athletic department received $6.5 million last year for being a member of the SEC.
"All of our history and traditions are in the Southeastern Conference," Athletic Director Todd Turner said. "It would be difficult if not impossible to walk away from that."
But if leaving the conference isn't an option to help improve Vanderbilt's football performance, are there other options? And is Vanderbilt serious about exploring those options?
Out of their league
Put simply, Vanderbilt has been unable to compete on the gridiron in the SEC.
In the past 40 football seasons, the Commodores have had a winning record against SEC opponents once. They have gone winless in the SEC for 10 of the past 25 seasons and appear headed that way again.
Vanderbilt's two victories this season were against Duke and Wake Forest, a couple of winless Atlantic Coast Conference programs. What's left this season? Three SEC opponents.
In a perfect football world Vanderbilt would simply drop out of the SEC and join another league and be able to generate the same revenue. But the reality is that Vanderbilt's not going anywhere and must find a way to step up to the competition without jeopardizing its strong academic reputation.
Earlier this season, Gee sat in Groves Stadium at Wake Forest, watching a rare Commodores victory. He spoke hypothetically about Vanderbilt's chances of jumping to any league in which it could be competitive in football.
"Obviously there are many institutional reasons why we would fit better perhaps into another league," Gee said. "But we have such strong relationships with the SEC, and it's a wonderful league. As an athletic league there are few, if any, that are better.
"But in terms of like-minded academic institutions I would love to have the 'Magnolia League' -- Duke, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt and Tulane and a couple of other institutions."
Another person well-versed in Vandy football also sees better fits for the program.
"I think the ACC is a good fit for Vanderbilt," said Gerry DiNardo, Vanderbilt's football coach from 1991-94. "If you look at Wake Forest and Duke, there are some private schools. North Carolina is also a highly respected school."
In the spring of 1996, the specially appointed Vanderbilt Committee on Athletics concluded nearly a yearlong study on moving to another conference or even dropping to Division III. The committee approached the ACC at that time, but ACC officials showed no interest. The VCA eventually decided Vanderbilt should remain in the SEC.
John Rich, a member of the Vanderbilt Board of Trust who co-chaired the VCA with John Hall, said the committee's mission was to prove to alumni and fans that Vanderbilt hadn't given up on athletics and was searching for answers.
"We went out to Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, and some of us went to some places and looked at Division III schools," Rich said. "I went to [former SEC member] Tulane to see what would be involved in getting out of the conference. Somebody else went to [former SEC member] Georgia Tech.
"The main thrust was that we went to Duke, Northwestern and Stanford because Northwestern had had some success -- they went to the Rose Bowl -- and of course Duke has had some good records. And with Stanford winning the Sears [all-sports] Trophy just about every year, those were the schools that we could identify with scholastically."
Rich said alumni made it clear to the committee they did not want Vanderbilt to leave the SEC.
The ACC, by the way, still isn't accepting applications. Said ACC Associate Commissioner Tom Mickle: "We seriously looked into expansion a year ago and decided not to."
Academics and athletics
In 1962, Art Guepe gave up after 10 seasons as head coach of the Commodores. He said Vanderbilt, with greater academic demands than other schools in the league, could not be Harvard Monday through Friday and Alabama on Saturday.
Some would say not much has changed.
After experiencing moderate success, DiNardo saw the handwriting on the wall and bolted for the chance to coach at another SEC school, LSU, in 1994.
Woody Widenhofer is the 10th coach in the last 40 years to try and help Vanderbilt fit in the SEC. He hasn't given up and isn't pushing for a move to another conference. But he would like to play by more of the same rules the rest of the league's coaches follow.
"The reason the SEC is a great league is because the football teams in our league are able to recruit junior college players, and they are able to get NCAA academic non-qualifiers in school,," Widenhofer said. "Those are things we don't do at Vanderbilt.
"I think there are definite advantages for those teams. And I don't blame them for using them because they can."
Widenhofer said he would appreciate some leniency from the admissions committee. Athletic departments at schools such as North Carolina, Duke and Tulane receive academic exceptions -- student-athletes who don't meet the normal guidelines set by the school, but still are admitted.
"I would like to see them allow some kids in like that and hold the coaches accountable for how they do in school," Widenhofer said. "If we keep them eligible, make sure they do well in school, then allow us to keep doing that."
Vanderbilt's tough admissions policy has long been an issue for coaches, not just in football, and remains the biggest roadblock to the Commodores being competitive in the SEC.
"These [SEC] teams look at 140 possible players each year in recruiting while we look at 100 [academically qualified to be admitted to Vanderbilt]," Rich said. "Over time that's hard to overcome."
But Turner said it's not nearly as difficult today to get athletes without stellar academic transcripts into Vanderbilt as it used to be.
"We have had people who have been all but non-qualifiers that have for one reason or another been able to get in and graduate from Vanderbilt," Turner said. "There are not many; they have to be exceptional in another way.
"Our standard for admission could be as low as the SEC's if the person presents a profile that, in the judgment of our faculty, allows them the chance to graduate. And we've had ki