Commodores Climb Out of the Cellar
There is a ranking for almost everything in college and professional sports these days. One of the most popular is the power rankings for conferences, players, or anything else that can be ranked. Fans love them, and we, the media, write about them.
The staff of Saturday Down South released their newest Power Rankings on Monday after week one of the ten-game schedule in the Southeastern Conference. There were no significant surprises or extreme movers on the list, though LSU and Kentucky did take a slight tumble, while Mississippi State and Vanderbilt, yes Vanderbilt moved up in the rankings.
The fact the Bulldogs jumped isn't surprising in the aftermath of their win against the defending national champs in Baton Rouge, but some might see the Commodores improvement as ludacris in a loss at Texas A&M.
The fact is that there wasn't that much separating Vanderbilt and Arkansas for the honors of the last place, and while the Hogs played well for a half, things fell apart when Georgia woke up and took care of their business in Fayetteville.
Vanderbilt managed to stick around and bug the daylights out of the Aggies. They actually had a chance to win in the end before the demons bit them again.
For that reason, the Commodores find themselves moving up from No.14 to No.13 in this week's SDS rankings.
Here's what they had to say of the Commodores scare in College Station.
13. Vanderbilt (0-1, lost to Texas A&M 17-12)
"As discussed last week, it figured to be a Vandy/Arkansas matchup at the bottom of the power rankings. And it is, but both teams showed some legitimate spark in Week 1. But being in a one-score game down to the wire at College Station lifts the Commodores. They’re still toward the bottom, but the huge gap we had perceived between 12th and 13th probably isn’t there."
Again, these ranking mean nothing, and the Commodores could very quickly revert to the last spot next week, depending on how they perform against LSU, who will be in a bad mood when they arrive on Friday.
The good news for Nashville is there won't be enough Tiger fans coming to drink the town dry again this year. However, their players might exact a measure of revenge for everyone coming off a season-opening defeat.
The Commodores and Razorbacks will likely conduct a season-long battle for the rights not be named the worse team in the SEC in 2020.
Follow Greg on Twitter @GregAriasSports and @SIVanderbilt or Facebook at Vanderbilt Commodores-Maven.
