A Look at Vanderbilt in the Forde Realignment Word

For those who have followed Pat Forde's realignment work this week, we now take a deeper look into what the fictional conference would look like for Vanderbilt.

No more Southeastern Conference as we know it, at least that would be the case in the reworked world of college athletics put forth this week by Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde, released this week.

On Wednesday, Forde released his 12-team playoff field under his new realignment plan, and on Thursday, he sat down with his SI colleague Ross Dellenger, to do a Q&A on how he came up with the realignment and other issues with his plan. 

The three-part series brought about much debate, discussion, and negative comments through social media, which included Forde sharing his email address and asking fans to respond while even offering to make one fan comments part of upcoming work on SI.com. 

But past that, what would the new conference mean for the Vanderbilt Commodores?

Let's look at the three biggest sports-four teams- of football, men's and women's basketball, and baseball.

The easy one first, baseball. Nothing at all would change here because the Commodores are a top program, and as long as Tim Corbin remains, it should continue at that level. 

The only potential pitfall would be a new conference with a lower level of competition than the former SEC. However, Corbin would likely use the non-conference schedule to face new Sun Belt members like Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and Auburn or new Deep South members like Georgia and Florida.  

FOOTBALL: This is the sport that would likely benefit the most from this radical realignment.  The Commodores could conceivably jump from the bottom of their current division to the middle of the new league. 

Notre Dame, Tennessee, and West Virginia are all historically better programs while Indiana, Kentucky, and Louisville are better currently, and perhaps arguable historically also. 

Having MTSU, Western Kentucky, NIU, Marshall, and Northwestern would give the Commodores more winnable games on the schedule each season, meaning at worst, regular appearances in bowl games which for Commodore fans would be acceptable.  

There would also be the potential for the better Commodores squads, to move into the top tier on occasion and challenge the elites in their new Mid-American Conference.  

BASKETBALL: Let's start with the women, where Stephanie White's squad has had some flashes of improvement and ultimately struggled in the conference. 

Just like football, the women's program would find some easier matchups in this new league and, with some added talent, could compete for titles here since only Notre Dame at this point has been genuinely elite of late. 

Louisville and Tennessee are two programs, with the Lady Vols history, who could jump forward here, but there would be no reason for the Vandy women not to find a regular spot near the top of this league. 

On the men's side, the presence of Kentucky would be at the top, followed by Louisville, Indiana, Tennessee, and possibly West Virginia, who has had periods of success of late. 

That would place Jerry Stackhouse and his program, as they currently stand in the middle of the pack with several winnable contests, especially if he can improve the talent level in his program moving forward. 

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

The move to this new conference would likely benefit Vanderbilt on the court and field, but financially, there could be a cost. 

Notre Dame and Tennessee in both football and basketball, along with Kentucky basketball, would be big draws for networks to cover. Still, the mediocrity overall would seem to make any broadcast deals far less lucrative than anything the SEC would ever have. 

Yes, winning would potentially mean better attendance and more ticket revenue. Still, it would take a massive jump in attendance across all four programs- baseball the exceptions- to come close to the current revenues the Commodores received from  SEC broadcasting packages. That still might not even come close to the millions earned just by being members of the nation's premier conference. 

As with the entire realignment package produced by Forde, the outcomes of the new conference and financial implications are all speculative, but if we are going to speculate on realignment, shouldn't we go all the way? 

Follow Greg on Twitter @GregAriasSports and @SIVanderbilt or Facebook at Vanderbilt Commodores-Maven.