<p>I feel that due to the raised academic standards of Universities like Vanderbilt and Northwestern, that either, the Ivy League should expand, or a new league should be created that incorporates the positive emphasis on education over athletics. Don't get me wrong here. I am not saying that Vanderbilt cannot play int he SEC, because as we all saw, if Vandy get's talent, it can comepte, I am saying that with the direction this university is headed, we should consider where our emphasis will lay. I have a bad feelign though that the Ivy League will not expand ever, but a new league would have to be formed.</p>
<p>Ivy League is a brand far more so than an athletic conference. Does Vanderbilt need a "League" to make its reputation better? Would a League help Vanderbilt have stronger academics? Would a League make the students feel better about attending Vanderbilt? I should hope we don't need a League membership to accomplish all of these things.</p>
<p>No way, wait until you get down here and you'll see why the SEC is the place to be. We are plenty competitive in all sports. Vandys academic rep is not something recent or new. </p>
<p>Same reason you wont hear: Duke and G.T. leave the ACC N.D. stops being independent Northwestern leaves the Big 10 Stanford leaves the PAC 10 to join and dominate a dinky athletic league.</p>
<p>Everybody always makes it sound as if Vanderbilt is this school full of whimpy geeks or snobbish rich kids. Vandy holds it own in the SEC is every sport that it competes in except for football. The problem with Vanderbilt football is that it lacks a tradition of winning (at least in the past 50 years). You can't build a winning tradition in football if you can't get the best recruits and you can't get the best recruits if you don't have a winning traditions. That's not the say our guys on the football team aren't exceptional players. You have to be exceptional to cut it in the SEC (even if you are Vanderbilt). The real problem with Vanderbilt is that we, unlike other schools that will remain nameless, don't recruit outright thugs on our teams.</p>
<p>I believe I rushed to judgement off of a long standing idea based on air. Once i actually go to Vandy i will reassess the status of the athletics. But also, everybody has their own feeligns about the quality of sports and their combination with academics.</p>
<p>Also, just one question to everyone, if title IX is to be enforced properly at Vanderbilt, shouldn't there be a men's varsity lacrosse team? </p>
<p>Well, IIRC, Title IX counts the number of scholarships as opposed to number of sports per gender. Because the football team equals 85 scholarships, the school has to offer quite a few more women's sports than men's sports.</p>
<p>Unfortunantely, there's only a women's lax varsity team. There is an active men's lax club and an intermural(sp?) league, I believe, so you'll get your lacrosse fix, no doubt.</p>
<p>mrryprankster, i agree completely with both of your posts. I think Vanderbilt has transformed from a regional school to a nationally-respected one. Our football rivalries are considered to be with "University of Tenn" and "Middle Tenn State". I don't believe that this is the direction we should be going in with football. Obviously, the formation of a new conference would be difficult but I think we should at least establish "real rivalries" in our out of conference schedule. For example, next year we are playing Duke. I think it would be great to establish a yearly rivalry with a school like Duke, Wake Forest, Rice, etc. Being an out of stater I have zero friends at MTSU or UT but I have plenty of friends at Duke, WF, etc. I think most students would enjoy a yearly rivalry similiar to the annual Harvard-Yale game.</p>
<p>I also agree we should have a Men's lacrosse team. The school could add women's volleyball or field hockey to balance out the scholarships.</p>
<p>You all need to get you facts strait before you post. First of all the football team was pretty good this year. They fell one game short of a Music City Bowl. Literally a hand a little lower on the MTSU blocked FG, just one different big play in the UK game, or the reversal of a highly questionable excessive celebration call in a 2 OT loss to Florida would mean the Dores would be playing in January.</p>
<p>Secondly, your ideas on the title IX rules are off. There are actually three ways to prove compliance with the legislation. First equal spending - that's never going to happen if you have a football program - secondly, scholarship counts, and finally number of sports offered. I'm not sure, but since the SEC requires that its members offer one MORE women's sport than mens, I bet Vandy uses option three.</p>
<p>Finally, at the root of this thread, it would be moronic for Vandy to leave the SEC. Just on a sports fan basis, I don't want to watch Duke, Northwestern (although they had a good run this year), or Rice (except in baseball) play Vandy year after year. The crux of Vandy's membership is that the SEC is one the nation's oldest and most prestigious athletic conferences and Vandy is a founding member. Plus the member schools have a revunues sharing agreement. That means that every time UT sells out a football game or UK fills Rupp, Vandy gets a share. Plus when SEC teams play in bowl games (which Vandy has only managed three times and not since 1982-83), Vandy gets an EVEN (1/12) share. When around half the SEC teams earn bowl bids, this can add up to millions for the Commodores. In short, Vanderbilt's SEC membership makes the SEC's academics look better and shows Vandy the money. It's win-win. Let's also not forget that Vandy has some great teams that wouldn't be national title contenders if they weren't competing in a conference like the SEC (m/w tennis, w. bball, and baseball).</p>
<p>The tyrade is over.
(This post by the son of 2VU0609, a senior at Vandy, GO DORES!)</p>
<p>In regards to Vanderbilt football, it has been a long and difficult journey. Since our establishment in the SEC in 1932 we have only managed to attend three bowl games (1955, 1974, 1982 respectively). In the midst of years of coaches being fired, people have failed to realize the tremendous difficultly of a small, academic private school competing alongside large state schools in arguably the most difficult football conference in the country. While the NCAA reported that Alabama is graduating 39% of its athletes, Vanderbilt has graduated 93% -- it is clear that the schools have directly opposite priorities in every sense of the word. Also -- football should not be lumped together with other sports as it relatively easier for academic schools to formulate solid basketball and baseball teams. Conversely, the academically talented football pool is relatively small and it difficult to recruit against historically-rich schools like Notre Dame. However, with that being said our efforts this year should be considered phenomenal. We finished with a (3-5 SEC record; 5-6 overall) which is easily our best record in decades. 2VU069, you seem to be making your stance however on Vandy football based upon one year (unfortunately this years record is an aberration). While many thought this years improvement would lead to better recruits it hasnt been the case. According to scout.com, the vast majority of commits have been one-star or two-star while our competitors are able to obtain the four-star and five-star recruits. Even if we miraculously obtained the interest of a top recruit, there is still the question whether the player could handle the workload and if our academic bar should be lowered (and how far is necessary) to ameliorate the teams sufferings.</p>
<pre><code> It was previously noted that Vanderbilt has a historic relationship with the SEC, obtains yearly bowl money, and makes SEC athletics look better. These are typical points used to show a mutually-beneficial relationship that Vanderbilt has with the South-eastern conference. Let it be noted that Vanderbilts current endowment ranks in the top-20 and totals around $2.3 billion dollars. Obviously any additional funds would be beneficial but every decision is a trade-off and the potential benefits of each choice should be carefully weighed. Personally, I believe that academics should have top priority over sports unless it is able to benefit the former. For instance, Duke has obtained a ranking of (#5 according to US. News) and their initial transition from a southern school to a national school are largely attributed to their basketball program. I believe if we are to stay competitive in sports, it should be used in this consideration as a clutch for Vandy to improve its national reputation. This reasoning is why I also disagree with those who encourage athletic interaction with academic schools like The Citadel or Southern Methodist University. Meanwhile, the following schools have D-1 capable teams and are academically distinguished: Duke, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Rice, University of Virginia, and Wake Forest. In order to improve our reputation, we should foster growth with these schools and solidify our association with them rather than schools like the University of Arkansas, Ole Miss, etc. In the academic sense debates, mock trials, publications, etc. should be encouraged between the other academic schools. I think a league that encouraged academic interaction would allow Vanderbilt to grow immensely and learn from its academic peers. Athletically I believe an official league would be difficult to formulate but I think that using the out-of-conference schedule wisely could supplement our academic interaction with our peers. As I have stated, we will play Duke next year in football. I believe if we established a rivalry with them it would parallel the Harvard-Yale tradition and help further our image as a national school. As students I do not believe it is our duty to make SEC athletics look better, but rather find opportunities to improve our Alma matter, and make Vanderbilt a better academic institution.
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<p>Athletic Confrences are all about money. Switching from the SEC to the ivy league would result in the loss of millions of dollars and would perhaps be the worst move ever. </p>
<p>Vanderbilt gets money from every SEC team in a bowl game, every NCAA basketball tourny game an SEC team plays in, and great media coverage.</p>