Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Florida is No. 1 and Vanderbilt is No. 112


Saturday's SEC afternoon game in the SEC pits No. 3 Alabama versus No. 9 LSU.

Big deal. How about the SEC game later that evening on ESPN2? You know, the one featuring No. 1 Florida against No. 112 Vanderbilt.

Sure, the Gators are No. 1 in the AP and USA Today polls. But how did I arrive at No. 112 for Vandy? Well, call me a homer, but I believe the Commodores are the best of the eight out of 119 teams that are no longer bowl eligible. And the only one with a whopping two wins.

They are:
• Vanderbilt (2-7)
• Akron (1-7)
• Washington State (1-7)
• Ball State (1-8)
• Miami-Ohio (1-8)
• Eastern Michigan (0-8)
• New Mexico (0-8)
• Rice (0-8)

But we'd still have our bowl eligibility, albeit with a 2-6 record, if we'd just scheduled a stinking bye week.

And we'd be 3-4 if we'd scheduled a bye week and... instead of scheduling No. 9 Georgia Tech and its Triple Lindy offense as a non-conference opponent, we'd scheduled Eastern Michigan or any of the other teams on the nine worst list above (except Rice; kudos to the Commies for scheduling and beating the Owls; but no kudos for borrowing the Owl offense).

Oh, and we'd be 4-3 if we'd taken a bye week, scheduled Eastern Michigan and... played Army on any day but Armed Forces Day.

Oh well. But hope is on the horizon. Next year, we have a bye week in late September and we play Eastern Michigan.

5 comments:

Stanimal said...

Dimon, I admire the heck out of ya. Your love for Vanderbilt football is just astounding. I like to think I can bang my head against a brick wall with the best of them, but not even I can endure the pain you go through. That's why I'm desperately hoping this basketball season doesn't send me spiraling into depression.

even more anonymous said...

According to their RPI rating, the Commies are #144 among all 246 colleges that play football at any level. Which puts them 33 spots behind mighty Prairie View A&M.

See for yourself.

I only hope Florida prepares accordingly.

DIMON KENDRICK-HOLMES said...

Cool poll. But I still believe we could beat Elon and Liberty, even if they are ranked higher than us.

DIMON KENDRICK-HOLMES said...

Hey Stanimal, thanks for the encouragement. I'm looking forward to reading all the great Vandy hoops coverage on www.vanderbiltsportsline.com

Vandy-Montana said...

Thank God for Montana football and Vandy Basketball...