UCF > Vandy?

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Why is Vanderbilt, not UCF, in the SEC? UCF would be more committed, competitive than Vandy July 24, 2010|By Mike Bianchi, SPORTS COMMENTARY HOOVER, Ala. — The other day, Bill Hancock, the executive director and head propagandist for the Bowl Championship Series, rambled on … and on … and on about how fair and equitable college football is under his beloved BCS system. He pretty much told the hundreds of writers and broadcasters assembled at SEC Media Days that the BCS is responsible for everything that is good about college football from the popularity to the passion to the pageantry. If not for the BCS, we were led to believe, Yoko Ono would probably be doing sidelines instead of Erin Andrews. "Why monkey with it?" Hancock said of college football's controversial and corrupt format.

Why? Here's why? Because Vanderbilt is in the SEC. And UCF is not. Can anybody logically explain this? Can anybody tell us why UCF, a thriving, up-and-coming program committed to building a big-time football program, is stuck in Conference USA while Vanderbilt — just because it was fortunate enough to join a major conference during the Great Depression — still gets to reap the financial and ancillary benefits of being in the SEC? Just out of curiosity, I wanted to see what new Vanderbilt football coach Robbie Caldwell would say when I asked him if his university could consistently compete in the Southeastern Conference and if, in fact, a university built on academic brains is a good fit in a conference built on athletic brawn. Caldwell predictably answered, "Yes, on both questions." "You can do both," he said. "You can be a great student and you can be a great football player. That is our belief." It should be noted that Caldwell used to work on the insemination at a turkey farm. Somewhere along the line, he obviously left his sense of reality inside an impregnated butterball. The fact is, Vanderbilt doesn't belong and cannot compete in the SEC. In 78 years in the league, Vandy has never won a league title. The Commodores have been to only four bowl games in their history and had only four winning seasons in the last 50 years. Besides Vanderbilt, SEC members Arkansas, South Carolina, Kentucky, Mississippi and Mississippi State haven't played in a BCS bowl. That's right, half of the toughest conference in college football has been irrelevant in the BCS era. "I would agree with you," said one official from an SEC school who preferred to remain anonymous. "I think a school like UCF has more potential and upside than a couple of the schools we have in our league."

To me, there is no bigger inequity in college football than this: Why are Vanderbilt and Mississippi State in the SEC? Why is Iowa State in the Big 12? What have these schools ever done to earn their spot in a big-time athletic league except for being in the right place at the right time nearly 100 years ago?

Nothing is the same as it was 100 years ago. Telegraphs have given way to text messages. Phonographs have given way to iPods. Things change. Populations shift. Universities like UCF that weren't even in existence in 1932 — when the SEC was formed — are now thriving schools in big cities with enormous resources.

Let's face it, Vanderbilt is not an SEC school; it is an Ivy League school. And is there any question that UCF, if given the financial resources and exposure of the SEC, would be much more competitive and committed to athletics than Vanderbilt is?

Vanderbilt doesn't even have an athletic department or an athletic director. Even now, UCF has a bigger stadium and better football facilities than Vandy. It has a larger TV market, a bigger enrollment, a more fruitful recruiting area and a more diverse alumni base. UCF is currently the third-biggest university in the country, located in the 19th-ranked TV market in the nation.

Still, UCF finds itself locked out of the BCS simply because it wasn't born into a big-money conference when college football leagues began forming a century ago.

Can you imagine the outcry if the rest of American society was like college football and based its hierarchy on the power structure that was in place 100 years ago?

African-Americans would still be riding in the back of the bus. Women would still not be allowed to vote.

"Why monkey with the BCS?" Bill Hancock wonders.

Because it is un-American, that's why.

This is a country where we are supposed to be rewarded on the current caliber of our commitment, not the privileged partisanship of our past.

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