Music City Bowl ranks in the bottom half of bowls

Nashville will be my only bowl destination this year, so when it comes to my favorite bowl matchup, obviously I'm voting with my wallet for the Music City Bowl.

But I don't expect anybody who doesn't root for Vanderbilt or Boston College to actually rank this one in the top half of the 34 bowl games.

ESPN's Mark Schlabach ranks the Music City Bowl at No. 25, ahead of Wake Forest-Navy, Kentucky-East Carolina, Buffalo-Connecticut, Rice-Western Michigan, Colorado State-Fresno State, Memphis-South Florida, Florida Atlantic-Central Michigan, Southern Miss-Troy and (drumroll, please!) Northern Illinois-Louisiana Tech.

Bet you didn't know all those schools even had college football teams.

Here's how all the SEC tie-in bowls fared in his rankings:

1. BCS National Championship Game: Florida vs. Oklahoma

5. Sugar Bowl: Utah vs. Alabama

6. Capital One Bowl: Georgia vs. Michigan State

10. Cotton Bowl: Ole Miss-Texas Tech

11. Chick-fil-A Bowl: LSU-Georgia Tech

18. Outback Bowl: South Carolina-Iowa

21. PapaJohns.com Bowl: NC State-Rutgers (No SEC teams available)

25. Music City Bowl: Boston College-Vanderbilt

27. Liberty Bowl: Kentucky-East Carolina

34. Independence Bowl: Northern Illinois vs. Louisiana Tech (No SEC or Big 12 teams available.)

I like the LSU-Georgia Tech and the Ole Miss-Texas Tech matchups better than Georgia-Michigan State (the Spartans are the worst 9-3 team in America) and Alabama-Utah (why couldn't we see Alabama-USC or Alabama-Texas?).

But I agree with the Independence Bowl. Is this the worst bowl game ever or what?

Vanderbilt and Boston College break Music City Bowl tradition

Music City Bowl officials like to tout their game as a high-scoring affair. Since the inception of the bowl, Music City matchups have rendered an average of 50 total points a game.

Um, you picked the wrong teams, guys.

This season, Vanderbilt and its opponents have combined for an average of 40 total points per game. Boston College and its opponents have combined for an average of 44 total points per game.

Here are the results of every Music City Bowl ever played:

• 2007: Kentucky 35, Florida State 28

• 2006: Kentucky 28, Clemson 20

• 2005: Virginia 34, Minnesota 31

• 2004: Minnesota 20, Alabama 16

• 2003: Auburn 28, Wisconsin 14

• 2002: Minnesota 29, Arkansas 14

• 2001: Boston College 20, Georgia 16

• 2000: West Virginia 49, Ole Miss 38

• 1999: Syracuse 20, Kentucky 13

• 1998: Virginia Tech 38, Alabama 7

It's official — Vanderbilt's playing Boston College in the Music City Bowl

Well, I'll see you in Nashville on New Year's Eve. It'll be the Commodores against the Boston College Golden Eagles. And hopefully it will be a battle of redshirt freshman quarterbacks — BC's Dominique Davis and VU's Larry Smith.

But don't bet on it. I can definitely see Bobby Johnson going with the redshirt senior, Chris Nickson, who undeniably played a big part in getting us here.

I'm OK with that. And I'm also OK that the team's staying home. Hopefully a lot of alumni will return to Nashville and pack the stadium.

I was talking to an alumnus today who expects to just walk up and get a ticket for a couple of bucks before the game. And he could be right — it's Vanderbilt, which struggles to fill its little stadium against the biggest opponents, against Boston College, which combined with Virginia Tech this weekend to sell only 20,000 tickets to the ACC championship game. Oh yeah, and LP Field seats nearly 70,000.

Vanderbilt Commodores headed to the Music City Bowl — and I'm glad

ESPN's Chris Low is reporting that Vanderbilt is headed to the Music City Bowl.

He's been talking to bowl officials at the SEC Championship Game and he says that the Capital One is taking Georgia after all, the Cotton Bowl's definitely picking Ole Miss, South Carolina's headed to the Outback, LSU's going to the Chick-Fil-A, and Kentucky's going to the Liberty.

But back to Vanderbilt and the Music City Bowl.

Lots of people think that's terrible because after 26 years of drought the Commodores deserve to take a bus trip and go out of town to a bowl, etc.

Take a bus trip? To Memphis? What's so exciting about that?

I'm glad the Commodores are staying home and here's why:

• They get to play in the home of the Tennessee Titans instead of the home of the Memphis Tigers.
• They get another chance to beat a team from the ACC this season (probably Boston College). They've already beaten a bowl-eligible team from Conference USA (Rice).
• Tickets to the Liberty Bowl cost a whopping $50, fifth most expensive among the bowls, which is amazing considering it may not be in the top 20 of bowls.
• Tickets to the Music City Bowl start at $15, which makes me happy because it looks like I'll be taking my four kids to the game.
• Like me, most Vanderbilt alumni don't live in Nashville — in fact, they don't even live in the state. So it'll be nice to go to a bowl game and at the same time visit the campus and city where they spent four memorable years.
• New Year's Eve in Nashville? Sounds good to me.

Vanderbilt's bowl opponent will be either East Carolina or Boston College

If Vanderbilt goes to the Liberty Bowl, the Commodores will play East Carolina, which beat Tulsa 27-24 today despite surrendering about 400 yards of total offense. The Pirates capitalized on seven Tulsa turnovers, including five interceptions, and won it at the end with a field goal.

If Vanderbilt goes to the Music City Bowl, the Commodores will play Boston College, which lost 30-12 to Virginia Tech today. The Golden Eagles held the Hokies to 217 total yards, but redshirt freshman quarterback Dominique Davis was 17-43 with two interceptions and had a fumble that was returned for a touchdown.

Which team would you rather play?

Vanderbilt's next opponent is playing right now

In its upcoming Tennessee Bowl, Vanderbilt will be playing Boston College, Virginia Tech, East Carolina or Tulsa.

If Vanderbilt goes to the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, the Commodores will play the winner of the C-USA Championship game between East Carolina and Tulsa. That one's in the fourth quarter and the Pirates (that would be East Carolina) are beating Tulsa 24-17.

If Vanderbilt goes to the Music City Bowl in Nashville, the Commodores will play the loser of the ACC Championship game between Boston College and Virginia Tech. That one's still in the first half, with the Hokies (VT) winning 14-7.

Anyway, here's a quick look at these four teams. Which one do you want Vanderbilt to play?

BOSTON COLLEGE
AP ranking: 20
Record: 9-3 (5-3 ACC)
Games won: Kent State, Central Florida, Rhode Island, NC State, Va. Tech, Notre Dame, Fla. State, Wake Forest, Maryland
Games lost: Ga. Tech, North Carolina, Clemson
Record against Top 25: 1-1
Record against bowl eligible: 6-3

VIRGINIA TECH
AP ranking: NR
Record: 8-4 (5-3)
Games won: Furman, Ga. Tech, North Carolina, Nebraska, W Kentucky, Maryland, Duke, Virginia
Games lost: East Carolina, Boston College, Fla. State, Miami (Fla)
Record against Top 25: 1-2
Record against bowl eligible: 4-4

TULSA
AP ranking: 31
Record: 10-2 (7-1 C-USA)
Games won: UAB, N Texas, N Mexico, C Arkansas, Rice, SMU, UTEP, C Fla, Tulane, Marshall
Games lost: Arkansas, Houston
Record against Top 25: 0-0
Record against bowl eligible: 1-1

EAST CAROLINA
AP ranking: NR
Record: 8-4 (6-2 C-USA)
Games won: Va. Tech, W Va, Tulane, Memphis, C Fla, Marshall, UAB, UTEP
Games lost: NC State, Houston, Virginia, S Miss
Record against Top 25: 0-0
Record against bowl eligible: 3-4

The expectations are different at Auburn than at Vanderbilt

Duh. You knew that already. But it bears repeating.

After the loss to Duke, a so-called long-time Vanderbilt posted an angry comment to a Tennessean story explaining that he was giving up on the Commodores forever. "Same old Vanderbilt," he wrote.

Goodbye, and good riddance.

But one question before you leave: What did you expect?

In August, everybody expected Vanderbilt to win a maximum of three games this season: Miami-Ohio, Rice and Duke. Sure, Commodore fans dreamed of six victories, and here's how we envisioned it happening:
• Beat Miami-Ohio, Rice and Duke.
• Beat Ole Miss and Kentucky.
• Upset either Miss State or Wake Forest.

Here's what happened:
• We did beat Miami and Rice, but not Duke. That's two victories instead of three.
• We did beat Ole Miss and Kentucky. That's four victories instead of five.
• We didn't upset either Miss State or Wake Forest. That's four victories instead of the six we dreamed about.

But that's not the end of the story, of course. We did what I never thought possible: • We beat Steve Spurrier for the second year in a row. That's five victories.
• We beat Auburn for the first time since 1955. That's six victories.

How is that a failure? Sure, a lot of us went crazy when we were 5-0 and started talking about BCS bowls. But in retrospect, we had to make a great run to end up with six victories. Think about it: We've got better depth and talent than we've had in a long time, but it's still not SEC-caliber. So our guys play out of their minds, we play to our strengths, we get some breaks, our coaches make some adjustments and we're 5-0. Then we lose guys to injuries, teams take us seriously, we don't get some breaks, we run out of tricks.

But we still get six victories. Would fans rather trade the Auburn and South Carolina victories for wins against, say, Duke and Miss State?

I wouldn't. Six wins is six wins. And as somebody who lives in Auburn country, it was beautiful beating the Tigers and precipitating their disastrous slide.

Speaking of Auburn, think about the expectations for that program. If Vanderbilt fans really expect to win more than three times as many games as the experts predicted (2), then think about Auburn fans. Experts predicted Auburn to go at least 10-2 and play in the SEC championship. That's why Tuberville just got fired/retired/was loyal to assistant coaches/refused to stay/whatever Auburn people are calling his recent firing.

That's why I'm glad Vanderbilt won six games this season. Bobby Johnson took the next step, which was six wins and bowl eligibility. His next step after this will be to maintain and then build. I think success would be winning six or seven the next year or two and then seven or eight for a couple of years after that. Maybe we have an off year — five wins — every now and then.

But do we really expect Vanderbilt to start winning nine or 10 games a year and challenging for a BCS bowl? Maybe if we leave the SEC and go to C-USA.

Remember that Tuberville averaged 8 wins over 10 seasons. Oh yeah, and he made four times as much money as Bobby Johnson.

Which brings me to another point: Sure, we could have beaten Miss State, Duke and Tennessee this season to go 9-3 and get a bid in the Outback or Cotton or maybe even the Capital One Bowl? We were that close. But then what would have happened?

Bobby Johnson would be gone to Clemson or Auburn or somewhere willing to throw a bunch of money at him.

Or Vanderbilt fans suddenly would have expected to win nine games every season, and then Johnson would have struggled as anybody who coaches Vanderbilt will do and then he's kicked to the curb — remember George MacIntyre? — and we return to the nightmarish days of Watson Brown, when we wouldn't just lose, we'd fail to cross midfield.

Think about all this the next time you decide to get into a urinating match online with a Tennessee fan. They have different expectations. They're supposed to play in the SEC championship every season and they're supposed to feel superior to us. I read a comment today from a UT fan asking when our commemorative six-win license plates were coming out to replace the commemorative Volunteer national championship plates.

I laughed. Not bad. Am I going to argue that we'll ever have a more storied program than the Vols? No way. I know who I am. I'm a Vanderbilt fan, and I'm proud we've won six games this season and I look forward to winning seven games in a season someday soon. (Hey, it might even be this season.)