OK, go ahead and call Vanderbilt "Vandy"

Do you refer to Vanderbilt as "Vandy"?

It has half the letters and, if spoken, 33.3 percent fewer syllables. And it makes a terribly formal name familiar, affectionate. Like calling Archibald "Archie" or Elizabeth "Beth."

Of course it can be used disparagingly, and it's only one "C" away from "Candy." Just ask any Vol fan who visits Vandy message boards.

Anyway, last fall when the football Commodores were racing to 5-0, the Tennessean's Mo Patton opined on his blog that Vandy — I mean Vanderbilt — fans should stop calling their team "Vandy." Just didn't seem right to call a team as dangerous as the Commodores "Vandy."

"I've been waging my own personal crusade for as long as I've been on the beat," Mo wrote. "If the five-letter word is ever under my name, rest assured I didn't write it. Stop the madness. Stop 'Vandy'."

So moved was I by Mo's argument that I stopped calling Vanderbilt "Vandy," at least until the loss to Duke. But generally I've tried to avoid that term.

Then today I see the above photo of the Vanderbilt baseball team. I mean the Vandy baseball team. Tim Corbin's Commodores, as you know, are as close to a collegiate powerhouse as we've got. Well, outside of the women's bowling team.

So if Tim Corbin's willing to call his team Vandy, then I'm OK with it.

Oh, and it's too hard for the students to chant "Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt, oh hell yeah."

But maybe I should stop referring to Maurice as "Mo."