Vanderbilt's Sports Teams are on the rise

Colleges and Universities A-Z Vanderbilt University
1

<p>Our football program has greatly improved in the last two years. The publicity of Cutler among others has helped recruiting and our games are now very competitive. This year we upset Georgia but more importantly we are returning some key players. Earl Bennett leads the SEC with receptions as a wide receiver after two years of play, Goff was amazing last year, and we now have an experienced QB in Chris Nickson. The best part is our non-conference schedule is VERY favorable and several analysts are predicting we make a bowl game.</p>

<p>Our basketball team just finished its magical journey. They finished 2nd in conference in the SEC with a record of 22-12 (10-6 SEC games) with a school record of six wins over Top 25 teams including a sweep of the Kentucky Wildcats and an emotional win over the defending champions, the Florida Gators. Derrick Byars was SEC player of year and Shan Foster also got All-SEC honors. With a crushing win over George Washington and surviving a double-OT nail-biter against #3 seed Washington State, Vandy has made another Sweet 16 -- its second in the last four years (and its 3rd 20-win season in 4 years). </p>

<p>The baseball team is currently ranked #1 in America by ESPN and Baseball America and with good reason. We swept the Minute-Maid Classic (beating then #1 Rice and ranked Arizona State) and after winning the series against a highly ranked Ole Miss team our record is 21-1. Pedro Alvarez (turned down $1 million Boston Red Sox contract to play for Vanderbilt) and David Price (likely #1 pick in the MLB draft) were both pre-season all-Americans. Weathers is a lights out closer and our hitting has tremendous depth. Corbin has done a great job in his short time here, and the Dores look like they have a good chance to go to Omaha for the College WS.</p>

<p>Also, there was recently a HBO-special on Vanderbilt where they interviewed Gee about having seven of its sports teams in the Top-25 without having an athletic department. Its great to see Vanderbilt's success especially with their emphasis on the STUDENT athlete. </p>

<p>National Publicity ---
<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2007-03-07-vandy_N.htm?csp=34%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2007-03-07-vandy_N.htm?csp=34&lt;/a> (success of Vanderbilt's student athletes)
<a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/ncaatourney07/columns/story?columnist=katz_andy&id=2809140%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/ncaatourney07/columns/story?columnist=katz_andy&id=2809140&lt;/a> (this years basketball journey)
<a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2805803%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2805803&lt;/a> (baseball - current rankings)
<a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2783164%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2783164&lt;/a> (baseball - nice story about Corbin)</p>

2

<p>I know the teams are on the rise, but it doesn't feel like it for football :( I mean sure they started out 4-0 when Cutler was there, but then they go and lose almost all of the rest of their games. They played the backup quarterback in their loss to MTSU,I was there heartbreaking loss :(, and then it seems like they are always projected to get better but they never seem to be able to get past 5 or 6 wins. But their basketball and baseball programs are great. But the cancellation of the Men's soccer team saddened me :(</p>

3

<p>Baseball is back to #1 in the latest ESPN poll. Go Dores!</p>