Vandy's getting no love from pollsters or bowl projectors... and that's just the way we like it

Ah, yes. Vandy's packing up for Baton Rouge, and meanwhile nobody's paying the Commodores any attention.

For example, 10 SEC teams got votes for the AP and USA Today polls:

• Florida: 1/1

• Alabama: 4/4

• Ole Miss: 6/8

• LSU 11/9

• Georgia 21/21

• Tennessee: 34/35

• Auburn: 43/36

• Arkansas: 45/44

• South Carolina: 45/34

• Kentucky: --/39

In the preseason, Vanderbilt received an AP vote for No. 23 from some sportswriter in California. Can't imagine why he dropped the Dores this week. Now Vandy and Miss State are the only SEC teams not to get votes.

Also, Mark Schlabach and Bruce Feldman of ESPN make their bowl predictions and the same 10 teams listed above get bowl consideration:

• Florida: BCS, BCS

• Alabama: Sugar, Cotton

• Ole Miss: Capital One, Sugar

• LSU: Cotton, Outback

• Georgia: Outback, Capital One

• Tennessee: Chick-Fil-A, Chick-Fil-A

• Auburn: Independence, Independence

• Arkansas: Liberty, Liberty

• South Carolina: Music City, Music City

• Kentucky: living room, Papajohns.com

Again, no Vanderbilt. And you know what? That's exactly the way Vandy fans should want it. We're not a winning team in the C-USA hoping to earn a little respect from voters. We're an SEC team that's going to face five teams currently in the Top 25, and another three teams receiving votes. That's plenty of opportunity to earn respect.

If we beat LSU, we'll get plenty of votes, and we'll probably crack the Top 25. And if we don't, we won't. That's exactly where we want to be.