Clark Lea argues Vanderbilt disrespect has hurt the strength of wins

Vanderbilt finds itself in an awkward position when it comes to the College Football Playoff rankings. Despite having the same 10-2 record as Alabama, the Commodores checked in four spots below in the rankings.

At No. 14 overall in the penultimate edition of the rankings, Vanderbilt appears to be a long shot to make the college football playoff field. One thing that coach Clark Lea said has hurt has been the reaction to some of the team’s wins this year.

A few times, when Vanderbilt has beaten a ranked team that ranked team has immediately dropped from the rankings. So optically the Commodores don’t look quite as strong.

“I think, again, what you notice is part of the reason those teams have fallen off is that I don’t think we were respected at the level we should have been respected for the quality of team that we are,” Lea said.

He would provide specific examples, noting how some of Vanderbilt’s wins are being undervalued currently. He singled out three of the team’s wins.

“When you look at LSU, Missouri and Tennessee, they finished 23-0 against unranked teams,” Lea said. “They were 0-13 against the top 14. And speaking specifically about LSU, they have five losses. Those losses are Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, Alabama and Ole Miss. I mean, you know? Missouri has four losses: Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Alabama. Tennessee has four losses: Vanderbilt, Georgia, Oklahoma and Alabama.”

In other words, it’s a really good league with everyone beating up on everyone else. Lea described the Vanderbilt playoff journey as one that’s been going on for weeks already.

“This is about a league that is the playoffs. When you play in the SEC, every week you are in the playoffs,” Lea said. “I know there’s a lot of talk about the SEC and the bias towards the strength of our league, but just look at the teams, look at the performances. Understand exactly what the gauntlet is that we go through to get to this point. We have a 10-2 SEC football team. At the end of the day, in my mind, that should be enough.”

To sum it up simply, Lea believes Vanderbilt isn’t given the credit it deserves. If it was, it would be on the other side of the playoff bubble at the moment.

“I think some of those teams were discounted because they lost to Vanderbilt,” Lea said. “Well Vanderbilt’s got a damned good football team.”