There’s a vividness in Vanderbilt Athletic Director Candice Storey Lee’s retelling of the night the Commodores slayed the giant.
Temperatures dipped into the mid-60s, giving Nashville a fall feel on that early October 2024 evening. A heavier skew of gold and black littered the stands at FirstBank Stadium, a change from nights of seasons past, in which attendance might well have been counted by hand, and home games were in name only.
As the clock ticked down, Lee stood on the sideline next to 1997 Vanderbilt grad and news personality Willie Geist. They peered around the stadium. It’s what they’d always hoped, a football environment worthy of the school’s conference affiliation. Reality proved almost jarring.
3, 2, 1. The clock continued to tick. Zeroes hit. The gold-and-black storm began.
Students flung themselves from the nearby seats. A few climbed the goalposts. They wobbled, and wobbled, and wobbled. Finally, they fell as an army of undergrads hauled their trophy toward the honky-tonks of Broadway.
Vanderbilt 40, Alabama 35.
“A few years ago, we sat at the table almost apologetically, or maybe just happy to be there, in some ways,” Lee conceded. “No one ever said that, but I think our actions may have demonstrated that. The reality is that I have — from the very beginning, and got criticized for it, especially early on — talked about what we were focused on, what we want to be.”
The 2024 win over Alabama, the Commodores’ first over the Crimson Tide in 40 years, was a start. Consider it a proof-of-concept moment for Lee, 46, an administrator hired amid the COVID-19 pandemic by a school that was part of the SEC but never really competitive.
“You have to be willing to withstand the laughter, the ridicule, the fickleness,” Lee continued. “You have to be able to withstand that. You have to be resilient enough to get through that, to get to the other side. There’s been a lot of that. But of all the things that had to change, the internal narrative had to change first.”
The Commodores football team enters the fall off its only 10-win season in school history. Vanderbilt’s basketball teams won first-round NCAA Tournament games under head coaches hired by Lee. Hundreds of millions of dollars in facility projects have been completed during her tenure. And then, of course, there’s the more than $300 million fundraised through athletics, and the university’s broader efforts to modernize Vanderbilt’s infrastructure.
That lengthy recent résumé is why Lee was named Sports Business Journal’s 2026 Athletic Director of the Year. But those closest to her will tell you the accomplishments are about more than a singular moment or deal that crossed the line.
Vanderbilt is no longer just a willing participant. The Commodores, Nashvillians assure, would welcome needing to fish a few more goal posts out of the Cumberland River.
These are the costs of success.
“That’s always been the knock, right?” said Vanderbilt women’s basketball coach Shea Ralph, a former longtime assistant to Geno Auriemma at UConn. “It was like, ‘The investment in athletics will never be what the investment in academics is.’ Candice has completely changed the narrative with what she’s done. And by doing that, she’s completely changed the athletic department and how people view our sports.”
Of course, it hasn’t always been this way.
Head football coach Clark Lea situated himself behind a lectern in the belly of the College Football Hall of Fame as dozens of rows of sportswriters largely ignored that Vanderbilt’s head coach had, in fact, entered the room for his annual SEC media days address.
The entire exercise of media days is often met with its share of eyerolls, as only a handful of frothy headlines make for fun, final offseason fodder before camp heats up across the conference.
Lea spoke in 2022 on a day when attention was transfixed on Nick Saban, Mike Leach and Shane Beamer. Then Lea began his spiel.
“We know, in time,” he said, “Vanderbilt football will be the best program in the country.”
A few scribes looked up. Others muttered snarkily under their breath. Did he really just say that?
2000: Lew Perkins, University of Connecticut
2001: Ted Leland, Stanford University
2002: Bob Bowlsby, University of Iowa
2003: Andy Geiger, Ohio State University
2004: Eric Hyman, Texas Christian University
2005: DeLoss Dodds, University of Texas
2006: Jeremy Foley, University of Florida
2007: Tom Jurich, University of Louisville
2008: Ron Wellman, Wake Forest University
2009: Joe Castiglione, University of Oklahoma
2010: Gene Smith, Ohio State University
2011: DeLoss Dodds, University of Texas
2012: Mark Hollis, Michigan State University
2013: Mal Moore, University of Alabama
2014: Kevin White, Duke University
2015: Jeff Long, University of Arkansas
2016: Gene Smith, Ohio State University
2017: Dan Radakovich, Clemson University
2018: Jim Phillips, Northwestern University
2019: Mitch Barnhart, University of Kentucky
2020: Scott Stricklin, University of Florida
2021: Mack Rhoades, Baylor University
2022: Sandy Barbour, Penn State University
2023: J.D. Wicker, San Diego State University
2024: Chris Del Conte, University of Texas
2025: Danny White, University of Tennessee
2026: Candice Storey Lee, Vanderbilt University
2017: Dan Radakovich, Clemson University
2018: Jim Phillips, Northwestern University
2019: Mitch Barnhart, University of Kentucky
2020: Scott Stricklin, University of Florida
2021: Mack Rhoades, Baylor University
2022: Sandy Barbour, Penn State University
2023: J.D. Wicker, San Diego State University
2024: Chris Del Conte, University of Texas
2025: Danny White, University of Tennessee
2026: Candice Storey Lee, Vanderbilt University
2018: Jim Phillips, Northwestern University
2019: Mitch Barnhart, University of Kentucky
2020: Scott Stricklin, University of Florida
2021: Mack Rhoades, Baylor University
2022: Sandy Barbour, Penn State University
2023: J.D. Wicker, San Diego State University
2024: Chris Del Conte, University of Texas
2025: Danny White, University of Tennessee
2026: Candice Storey Lee, Vanderbilt University
2019: Mitch Barnhart, University of Kentucky
2020: Scott Stricklin, University of Florida
2021: Mack Rhoades, Baylor University
2022: Sandy Barbour, Penn State University
2023: J.D. Wicker, San Diego State University
2024: Chris Del Conte, University of Texas
2025: Danny White, University of Tennessee
2026: Candice Storey Lee, Vanderbilt University
2020: Scott Stricklin, University of Florida
2021: Mack Rhoades, Baylor University
2022: Sandy Barbour, Penn State University
2023: J.D. Wicker, San Diego State University
2024: Chris Del Conte, University of Texas
2025: Danny White, University of Tennessee
2026: Candice Storey Lee, Vanderbilt University
2021: Mack Rhoades, Baylor University
2022: Sandy Barbour, Penn State University
2023: J.D. Wicker, San Diego State University
2024: Chris Del Conte, University of Texas
2025: Danny White, University of Tennessee
2026: Candice Storey Lee, Vanderbilt University
2022: Sandy Barbour, Penn State University
2023: J.D. Wicker, San Diego State University
2024: Chris Del Conte, University of Texas
2025: Danny White, University of Tennessee
2026: Candice Storey Lee, Vanderbilt University
2023: J.D. Wicker, San Diego State University
2024: Chris Del Conte, University of Texas
2025: Danny White, University of Tennessee
2026: Candice Storey Lee, Vanderbilt University
2024: Chris Del Conte, University of Texas
2025: Danny White, University of Tennessee
2026: Candice Storey Lee, Vanderbilt University
2025: Danny White, University of Tennessee
2026: Candice Storey Lee, Vanderbilt University
2026: Candice Storey Lee, Vanderbilt University
Lea was dead serious. Lee wasn’t surprised.
There’s a shared respect between AD and football coach. Both are Vanderbilt alums, albeit that’s a bonus. Lee made clear when she hired Lea from Notre Dame that he wasn’t getting the job because of what his degree said, but rather because he was the best fit.
There were moments of doubt, Lea says now. A pair of 2-10 seasons flanked a 5-7 campaign over his first three years on the job. Murmurs percolated that Vanderbilt’s football job could open, again.
Lea responded with a 7-6 season in 2024, capped off with a win over Georgia Tech in the Birmingham Bowl. Quarterback Diego Pavia returned last fall, finishing runner-up in the Heisman voting, and guided the Commodores to a program-record 10 wins.
“I never lost confidence in Clark,” Lee said. “I told him from the very beginning … ‘This department is on a parallel track with this football program.’ He’s the first coach I hired, and we were going to make significant investments there, and we needed to.
“Our baseball program had set the standard, and I wanted to get everybody else up to that standard. I talk about that freely and openly. Starting with football, that was important.”
Such success breeds outside interest. Lea’s name was floated for a half-dozen openings around the country. Vanderbilt administration stepped up when others came calling. Neither coach nor athletic director would disclose exact numbers, but they’re not concerned about Vanderbilt’s ability to compete in a world where football rosters are steadily climbing into the $30 million to $40 million range.
“Opportunity gives you a chance to evaluate where you are and really take a good look at where it’s headed and what’s the best thing,” Lea said. “Because this isn’t charity work. This is your profession, and you want to win. I want to win a national championship.
“As I’ve gone through that process, the thing that I come back to over and over again is the people. This is not necessarily about the place for me. A lot of people think that because I’m an alum from Nashville that this would be where I choose to be. It’s not that. I’m way too competitive for that. But the people that are ahead of me, Chancellor [Daniel] Diermeier and Candice, it’s the best chancellor-AD tandem in the country. They literally are superheroes as they’re doing their jobs and the way they clear the path ahead of us and, again, allow us to have this aggressive vision for sustained success.”
Judging an athletic director’s prowess in 2026 can be a subjective matter. Fundraising is a key cog. Facility efforts are another. Coaching hires? At least publicly, that’s all any general fan really cares about — and Lee has nailed most every one in her tenure.
Talk to the coaches across Vanderbilt’s campus, and they echo a similar refrain about their boss. ”No” is never the immediate answer to a request. It’s something closer to, “If that’s important to you, let me see what’s feasible.”
Men’s basketball coach Mark Byington says Lee has an uncanny ability to read when he might need something before he even asks. Lea cherishes the mentorship conversations they’ve had over their five-plus years together. Ralph said Lee will swing by her house to take her to lunch if she’s had a tough day.
As for having a former basketball player as a boss?
“People ask me the way that you asked — ‘How is that?’” Ralph said, glancing over her glasses with a smirk. “I love it. She’s smart. She also knows her lane and knows mine, but she’s at every game. She’s in our locker room. She was in tears with some of the wins we had this year, and I’m in tears, and then our kids are in tears.
“But she is personally invested, and who wouldn’t want that? — and I told her, in dire need, if I need a post player, I’m going to slap a wig on her, and we’re just going to figure it out.”
The relationship Lee enjoys with her head coaches is part of the secret elixir cooked up across Vanderbilt’s campus over the last two years. The hires of Lea, Byington and Ralph, among others, have led to one of the most successful on-field spells in the school’s existence.
Football reached the top 10 for the first time since World War II. Byington became the first coach in program history to win 20 games in each of his first two campaigns. Ralph has won 20-plus games in three straight years and guided the Commodores to their first Sweet 16 since 2009.
Elsewhere, the department took off.
The baseball team, under legendary head coach Tim Corbin, won the 2025 SEC Tournament and received the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. Women’s soccer, too, won an SEC Tournament title. Women’s tennis reached an NCAA Super Regional for the second time in three years, while men’s tennis and golf each signed the No. 1 recruiting class in the country over that span. Volleyball, too, returned to the school for the first time in 45 years.
“For me, I just didn’t want to be in the SEC or just be in Nashville,” said Byington, who was hired in 2024. “I had to be at a place where I knew we could be successful. When you’re around her, she has a shared vision of a plan of success, and she was very open about some of the things that weren’t successful before and some of the reasons why. Then, she had a clear plan on what she wanted to do in the future.
“Once I was aligned with that, then I really wanted a job. I was like, ‘If this is my boss and this is the passion that she has and she wants it as bad as I do, what perfect alignment.’”
“What stood out was her belief in Vanderbilt’s potential,” added Diermeier, reflecting on his hiring of Lee in 2020. “She understood the institution as an alumna, but she also challenged us to think bigger about what Vanderbilt athletics could become.”
Before Vanderbilt’s thrilling homecoming overtime win over Auburn in November, Lee took a handful of her former Commodores teammates on a tour of the school’s new athletic facilities.
Several of her college pals hadn’t been on campus in years. Their eyes widened with each step.
This wasn’t the Vanderbilt they remembered.
“Sometimes you don’t experience it the same way when you’re there every day,” Lee said. “When you take a step away, and you come back and you’re like, ‘Wow.’”
Facilities have long been a challenge for Vanderbilt throughout the college football and basketball arms races of the 2000s. Previous leadership had fixations on modernizing and updating. Few had the administrative support to do so.
Lee and Diermeier’s visions have aligned over the last five years. That shared approach is, at least in part, why Commodores coaches have been armed with a slew of new facilities to break in.
FirstBank Stadium received a $300 million facelift. The north end zone project saw additions of premium hospitality areas, a video board, premium seating and loge boxes. A visiting team locker room renovation and expanded concourses were also part of the build. The south end zone, meanwhile, added 20 suites and more than 1,000 club seats as part of the Commodore Club, field club, loge boxes, living room boxes and more.
Lee has also overseen the recent completion of the Huber Center, a basketball operations center and practice facility, and renovations to the Vanderbilt Legends Club, home to the Commodores’ men’s and women’s golf teams.
Hawkins Field, the longtime home of Vanderbilt baseball, is in the midst of its own renovation that’s slated to be completed over the coming year or two. The project will touch everything from a new weight room and pitching lab to fan-facing improvements, such as a Party Deck 360 bar and the Taste of Nashville Market with grab-and-go options.
“What stood out was her belief in Vanderbilt’s potential. She understood the institution as an alumna, but she also challenged us to think bigger about what Vanderbilt athletics could become.”
“Facilities are one piece of a larger strategy, but they matter,” Diermeier said. “Candice helped generate the support necessary to move those projects from aspiration to reality, positioning Vanderbilt for long-term success.”
That broader strategy centers on a handful of major fundraising campaigns that touch athletics and the university. The school completed the first phase of its Vandy United Campaign, a $300 million fundraising effort announced in 2021 that was kickstarted by $200 million in donations, including $100 million from the university, $90 million from anonymous donations and a $10 million lead gift from trustee John R. Ingram.
Lee also recently announced the $50 million Anchored for Her campaign centered on women’s sports at Vanderbilt. A new $300 million phase of Vandy United is planned to help fund a Football Experience Center, a new soccer and lacrosse stadium and a reimagined Jess Neely Drive, which runs through the heart of the university’s athletics neighborhood.
“We’re not going to take shortcuts,” she said, well aware of the time it’s taken to flip Vanderbilt’s department. “I would say all the time in our staff meetings, ‘If I told you I’ve got this brand-new, beautiful, elegant house for you, I built it in one day and it’s yours — do you want it?’
“Even if it’s free, you better not take that house. You better take the one that can withstand bad weather that is built according to codes, that I got a permit for, that we followed a blueprint and it all makes sense, so when you move into that house, you’re moving in with confidence.”
Vanderbilt was, at best, a fixer-upper when Lee landed the athletic director job in 2020. It’s evolved into a case study for departmentwide success in a time when financial pressures are only growing.
Diermeier speaks of a vision for the school that extends beyond Nashville. Lee shares similar sentiments about Vanderbilt’s wider mission — succeeding academically, athletically and beyond.
These days, there’s evidence it’s feasible.
Lea, who signed five-star quarterback Jared Curtis during the most recent cycle, conceded five years ago he might not have been able to swing for a player of Curtis’ caliber.
“When you start talking about recruits that come with Jared’s stature, you’re going to need some proof of concept,” he said. “And it’s not just about winning. It’s about energy and environment and this ingrained belief in community that aligns to allow you to have a chance to reach a little deeper into that prospect pool.
“As we’ve been at it, the ripple effect of our effort has transformed the perception of the program. As the perception has changed, it’s allowed us to have a little further reach.”
Lee puts a broader spin on the sentiment.
“There’s a bigger story there about just how this university is taking off,” she said. “I’m so proud that Vanderbilt Athletics is a part of Vanderbilt’s skyrocket story.”
