re: Vandy going for their 2nd win against a ranked non-conference opponent ever

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Vanderbilt Stadium was also the first stadium in the Southeast built soley for football. It had a capacity of 20,000 in 1922. Shield-Watkins opened the year before but must have had other uses (track maybe?) with a capacity of 3,200. It wouldn't be for another 16 years until Shield-Watkins was larger than Dudley Field by capacity. It's crazy how things changed with the way scholarships were regulated that hurt private schools just after WWII.

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I'm talking about when it finally expanded. Shields-Watkins was built by students. It took a ton of work and almost wasn't finished. Later it began to grow.

Kinda weird that Shields-Watkins is older. We did have 38k+ by 1938 tho so it wasn't all war. BUT schollies did change the face of football so did the first 'football panic' that turned a lot of people off. The main thing tho was that football powerhouses like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton decided to abandon sports schollies - not just football. They have ways around that if you're really good but it's very limited and you still have to meet requirements.

Those schools are more interested in looking across the pond though. Fencing and Rowing are their game and the average income of students (or their parents) largely mean they don't have to worry about scholarships.

Even back in the day, football quickly became a poor man's game, complete with ringers and playing working side jobs and getting paid a ton by playing for city teams (that was a thing). Notre Dame's team was notorious for sneaking out and playing in city games for cash.