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Athletic director Candice Lee and head coach Clark Lea each took the podium on Dec. 1 to make the case for Vanderbilt Football to get an at-large bid to the College Football Playoff. There has been considerable conversation that Vanderbilt will not receive a bid to the 12-team bracket despite having a 10-2 record (6-2 SEC).
The Commodores came in at No. 14 in last week’s CFP ranking behind other notable bubble teams, including Miami, Utah and BYU. Even with a win over ranked Tennessee this past Saturday, Vanderbilt moved down a spot in the AP Poll to No. 13, and tomorrow’s release of the new CFP rankings may eliminate the Commodores entirely from the conversation.
Lee took the stand first and made her arguments for Vanderbilt making the CFP in her opening statement.
“In my mind, we are clearly one of the best teams in the country,” Lee said. “We’re certainly playing like it, and I think that we have positioned ourselves to chase everything that we said at the beginning of the year that, for some people, didn’t seem feasible or real. We have quietly just gone about our business, and now that the regular season is over, I think, akin to who we are, we just simply want to talk about the facts, and we believe that data beats bias every day.”
The idea of “data beats bias” was a consistent theme throughout both press conferences, as Lee brought with her several pieces of information she found most relevant to Vanderbilt’s case.
“[The CFP committee] wants to see teams who are playing their best football at the end of the season. Check. They want you to have ranked wins and a strong strength of schedule. Check. [They] understand that if you do lose, they can’t be bad losses, and so our two losses are quality losses. Check. And we believe that Diego Pavia is the best football player in the country, and what he adds, the difference that he makes, the impact that he has, is the most significant to a team in the country.”
Aside from several other Power-Four schools jumping Vanderbilt in the CFP rankings, it’s unlikely that the committee will take more than five SEC schools in the 12-team field. Currently, five other SEC foes — Texas A&M, Georgia, Ole Miss, Alabama and Georgia — sit in front of Vanderbilt. Lee expressed her desire to see more SEC schools make the Playoff.
“I think you’re describing what some people perceive as SEC fatigue,” Lee said. “The fact of the matter is that we’re the best conference in the country, and it shouldn’t matter how many teams are coming from that conference if you’re trying to put the best field forward.”
Next to take the stand was Lea who advocated for his team’s spot in the Playoff — both in terms of the statistics and what his team has proven to the nation.
“We’re here because we’ve got a really good football team,” Lea said. “This is not about narratives and stories, it’s about [the] statistics and the data that supports [that this] is a really good football team. I believe, with every strand of my being, [this team] deserves a chance to compete for a national championship.”
Lea honed in on the statistics behind the grueling schedule, both non-conference and conference, that Vanderbilt took on.
“The merits [of] the case are about strength of record,” Lea said. “The ESPN Football Power Index has us ranked No. 11. It’s also about strength of schedule. Of the teams that are ranked ahead of us, four have a higher strength of schedule ranking.”
Vanderbilt’s head coach also expounded on the “no bad losses” statistic that was brought up by Lee, noting that the Commodores’ only losses came against ranked opponents in Alabama and Texas on the road. He also emphasized how the ‘Dores were in those games down to the final minutes.
“Our two losses came on the road at Alabama and Texas,” Lea said. “Their [records] combine for 19-5 on the season, [and] in both we were in striking distance in the fourth quarter.”
He also emphasized how Vanderbilt has continued to exceed the national perception imposed upon his program from the start of the season. Despite returning the most production in the SEC, the Commodores didn’t break into the AP Rankings until they defeated South Carolina in Week 3 on the road.
“We’ve earned every bit of respect that we’ve gotten this year [but] I feel like that gap that we have to close keeps getting wider,” Lea said.
The star of Vanderbilt’s show is undoubtedly quarterback Diego Pavia. Lea thinks that should add something to Vanderbilt’s chances.
“We’ve got the best player in the country playing quarterback for us, Pavia,” Lea said. “He is the best in college football and should be a Heisman frontrunner. This team deserves the brightest lights on the biggest stage.”
Lea also addressed the committee’s tendency to place heavier weight on current ranked wins rather than formerly ranked wins. Two of Vanderbilt’s top 15 wins came against teams that are no longer ranked in the standings — South Carolina and LSU. Furthermore, Missouri, who the Commodores defeated at home, has only just bounced back into the AP Top 25.
“Part of the reason those teams have fallen off is because I don’t think that we’re respected at that level. We should have been respected for the quality of team that we are,” Lea said. “We have a 10-2 SEC football team and, at the end of the day, that should be enough. And I think some of those teams were discounted because they lost to Vanderbilt.”
For now, Vanderbilt will have to sit back and watch how the conference championships on Dec. 6 play out. The CFP Selection Show airs on Dec. 7, which will determine if the best season in program history is enough for Vanderbilt to be included in the 12-team CFP field. In the meantime, Vanderbilt and its administrators will keep advocating both for its CFP resume and Pavia’s Heisman candidacy.
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