The Bowl system sucks

[Sect309Fan]

Last year, Vandy didn't get invited to the Gator Bowl because they didn't want a rematch of Northwestern-Vandy. This year, the Gator bowl selected Georgia-Nebraska, who played each other in the Capitol One Bowl last year.

Vandy was 8-4, tied with Texas A&M and Georgia and better than 7-5 Ole Miss and 6-6 Miss State. Yet they go to the worst of the SEC bowls, the Compass Bowl is Birmingham. I guess beating UT prevented us from going to Shreveport, but that's about it. The SEC just doesn't care about Vandy, despite Vandy being one of the best teams in the SEC in selling bowl tickets. (At least they play a good opponent in Houston).

The Sugar Bowl could have been Bama-Oregon, but instead it is a much more boring matchup of Bama-Oklahoma. The SEC and Big12 will be playing bowl games against each other next year, and this matchup was apparently a way of kicking this off.

UCF is a tiny school with a limited budget, but they are being shipped off way out west to the Fiesta Bowl instead of the much closer Orange Bowl.

Notre Dame gets to play a weak 6-6 Rutgers team in Yankee Stadium.

Now that Vandy is in bowls regularly, the hypocrisy of the whole system is more apparent.

[Parddy]

ND will beat Rutgers by 35. UConn beat Rutgers two weeks ago and UConn STINKS. By contrast UCF almost put up 70 on UConn.

Who is UCF playing in the Fiesta Bow?????

Vandy vs Houston is an interesting match-up I think???? I'd watch some of that. Stop yer whinin'

[Titan723]

Another example of the bowl system sucking.. 8-4 Western KY not getting a bowl bid.

[ZachLV27]

ND will beat Rutgers by 35. UConn beat Rutgers two weeks ago and UConn STINKS. By contrast UCF almost put up 70 on UConn.

Who is UCF playing in the Fiesta Bow?????

Vandy vs Houston is an interesting match-up I think???? I'd watch some of that. Stop yer whinin'

I'm not sure if you were serious or not, but..

UCF is playing Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl. They are the BigXII champions, the #5 team in the nation, and the best offense in the nation this year. They are going to destroy UCF.

[Titan723]

I'm not sure if you were serious or not, but..

UCF is playing Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl. They are the BigXII champions, the #5 team in the nation, and the best offense in the nation this year. They are going to destroy UCF.

I agree, its going to be like when UConn got blasted by Oklahoma (I think) in the Fiesta Bowl a few years ago.

[Hammr]

I think we need to go retro and get back to the Rose, Sugar, and Orange bowls. the current system is the equivalent of handing out participation trophies.

[Parddy]

Yes, Oklahoma trashed UConn that year. UConn played well in the first 10 minutes. lol

Gee Zach, I never said UCF would give Baylor a good game???

I just compared them to a horrific Rutgers team and asked who they were playing? Geez, bite my head off why don't ya.

[TitansGiantsBears]

Climer had a good article about this in today's paper.

Apparently Vandy ended up where they did because their Sagarin rating was so low and they don't travel well to bowl games.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20...ves-Birmingham

[Sect309Fan]

Climer had a good article about this in today's paper.

Apparently Vandy ended up where they did because their Sagarin rating was so low and they don't travel well to bowl games.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20...ves-Birmingham

Climer says they have a reputation for not travelling well to bowl games, but the truth is that they do travel well. They sell out there bowl allotments each time, and they do travel well to bowls. The Vandy side of the Liberty Bowl in 2012 was full, and Vandy fans were the large majority of the 55,800 fans in the Music City Bowl last year. Vandy is like Stanford, where the alumni and fanbase is spread out nationally and not centrally located anywhere. If Vandy had been in the Gator Bowl, they definitely sell out of their allotment (which many SEC teams do not...see Florida last year), and the Chick Fil A Bowl would sell out no matter who is in it.

The Sagarin ratings mean little. Vandy was the 7th or 8th best SEC team in every other ranking. Vandy went 8-4 and beat Florida, Georgia, and UT for the first time ever in one season. They should have gone to the Gator Bowl over a team that always plays in the Gator Bowl (against Florida) each year. The Gator Bowl likely will have poor attendance due to the repeat matchup of last year, plus Georgia's QB is out for the game.

We will see if the SEC controlling bowl selections makes a difference next year.

[TitansFan23]

I don't think the Coaches or Media have respect for Vandy because despite their record, the Commodores have never been a serious contender for the SEC East, much less the SEC. I grew up in Gallatin, and have watched Vanderbilt over the years (football, baseball and basketball), and they've had up and down seasons across the board in each sport. That being said, they've had many more rainy days than sunny.

Does anyone ever expect Vandy, to be a serious contender for the SEC? Vandy can't compete with the other schools due to their academic requirements. They're just not a school the top HS recruits take a serious look at. I know they've had a player here and there that have gone on to the NFL (Jay Cutler) and had success, but they've never had a complete team full of NFL talent like such teams as Alabama, Auburn, Florida, LSU and even Tennessee.

This is my opinion as to why they are the bridesmaid, and never the bride of the SEC.

[Sect309Fan]

I do think that James Franklin can turn Vandy into an SEC East champion contender. If Duke can win their half of a conference, Vandy has a shot as well. Now that could change if the SEC goes to a 9 game schedule, since Vandy typically gets one of the easier conference schedules under the 8 game (they play Bama, LSU, and Auburn very infrequently).

[TitansGiantsBears]

Now that Vandy is in bowls regularly, the hypocrisy of the whole system is more apparent.

With Franklin gone the problem of not going to a good enough blowl has pretty much solved itself for Vandy. Welcome back to 2-10.

[Sect309Fan]

With Franklin gone the problem of not going to a good enough bowl has pretty much solved itself for Vandy. Welcome back to 2-10.

I seriously don't see that happening. Vandy should still win at least 6 games next year no matter who is coach. After that, we will see.

It is really disappointing in the way Franklin left. I lost a lot of respect for him in the way he did it. If he had just come out before the bowl game and said he will be moving on, I would have been sad, but not surprised. But by holding secret meetings with Penn State for probably a month and then poaching more Vandy recruits than any coach in NCAA history (as far as I can tell), he is pretty scummy. Plus, he said "any player that decommits from their school is not a man".

I will still love the historic moments Franklin brought to Vandy, but he blew a golden opportunity to really put his mark on Nashville.

[ZachLV27]

Meh. Most of the recruits that are leaving Vandy and thinking of joining him at PSU weren't going to stay at Vandy anyways. They were gone the second Franklin left. The same thing happened with several Penn State recruits when O'Brien decided to take the Texans job.

Notre Dame is making a big push to try and get Sawyers and a couple other Vandy recruits. The push to get Sawyers to join is because ND just lost longtime commit Dickerson to UCLA (Dickerson's father was just diagnosed with cancer so this is the right move for him).

Boise State lost its 2 best recruits to Washington and a few others elsewhere when Petersen decided to leave. BSU did just pick up the 6th best safety in the nation. The kid de-commited from Texas aTm and followed BSU's new DC to Boise (Marcel, the new DC is who recruited him to aTm to begin with).

[TitansGiantsBears]

I seriously don't see that happening. Vandy should still win at least 6 games next year no matter who is coach. After that, we will see.

It is really disappointing in the way Franklin left. I lost a lot of respect for him in the way he did it. If he had just come out before the bowl game and said he will be moving on, I would have been sad, but not surprised. But by holding secret meetings with Penn State for probably a month and then poaching more Vandy recruits than any coach in NCAA history (as far as I can tell), he is pretty scummy. Plus, he said "any player that decommits from their school is not a man".

I will still love the historic moments Franklin brought to Vandy, but he blew a golden opportunity to really put his mark on Nashville.

I don't see it happening right away either. Vandy should still compete for at least six wins in the immediate future. I do see them slipping back to the level of the typical Ole Miss, Mississippi State, or Kentucky in the long run with a few mediocre seasons then a 6-8 win season every few years. I agree with you that Franklin proved a bit of a scumbag in the end. You just don't criticize others by saying they "aren't honorable men" for going back on their commitments and then poaching a school once you leave. It just goes to show you too how big-time college football programs talk a good game about integrity, etc, but in the end all that matters to them is winning.

Penn State nearly suffered the death penalty due to the Sandusky scandal. After losing his replacement to Texas they bring in a guy who presided over a team mired in a major rape scandal and who made comments in the past about only hiring assistants whose wives were hot. However "hot" he was as a coaching candidate, I think he was a peculiar hire for that particular school.

[Parddy]

I'm not sure if you were serious or not, but..

UCF is playing Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl. They are the BigXII champions, the #5 team in the nation, and the best offense in the nation this year. They are going to destroy UCF.

2014 Fiesta Bowl UCF 52 Baylor 42. lol