Clark Lea accepts Vanderbilt being left out of College Football Playoff: 'We are not victims'

Every season, there are teams on the outside looking in at the College Football Playoff that feel deserving of an opportunity. Among those this year was Vanderbilt. Despite that, head coach Clark Lea doesn’t want the Commodores to see themselves as victims.

In the wake of the letdown, Lea was asked how he reconciles the criteria for selection with being left out. However, he didn’t use it as an opportunity to go after the selection committee. Instead, Lea put the blame on his own team for coming up short.

“I don’t know if I have a great answer for that, right now,” Clark Lea said. “The committee has a really challenging job and I think there’s going to be a lot of great conversation, constructive conversation, all season to say, ‘How do we shape this in a form that resembles the way the game has evolved?’ It’s hard. We’re adapting. That’s challenging and we happened to be on the wrong side of that in this moment, but look, that’s no one’s fault except our own. We had our opportunities and we didn’t do enough. We are not victims in this process. Our ownership is in coming up short.”

In the final selection committee rankings, Vanderbilt finished ranked No. 14 in the country. That was well on the outside looking in, with Notre Dame, BYU, and Texas all finishing ahead of the Commodores but still missing out on the Playoff in the rankings. In particular, it would have been difficult for Vanderbilt to hop Texas, given their head-to-head result.

Instead, Vanderbilt finished the season 10-2, with losses to Alabama and Texas. Several key wins for Vanderbilt came against opponents ranked at the time they played, but those same opponents largely struggled in the aftermath of their meetings. Still, it was the first 10-win season in program history and now Lea will lead the Commodores into the ReliaQuest Bowl.

“It’s a reminder of how critical every moment is. Every snap. Every possession. There’s a lot to learn in this season because we want to be back in these moments,” Lea said. “But as it is, we’ll spend time in the offseason trying to get the system more into focus with where the game has gone. In the meantime, we’re going to celebrate the hell out of going and playing in Tampa and having some fun together one last time.”

The ReliaQuest Bowl is set to kickoff on New Year’s Eve at 11:00 a.m. EST. There, Vanderbilt is set to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes.