Vanderbilt Commodores Chances to Reach College Football Playoffs Are Still Alive
There is still hope for the Vanderbilt Commodores to reach the biggest stage this season.
Although the team has three losses on the season, some believe the Commodores still have a shot at making it to the College Football Playoffs. On Thursday, On3 released a list of 31 teams who still have a shot at being one of the 12 teams in the new expanded playoff format this postseason. By no surprise, the list was loaded with teams from the SEC, ten to be exact. One of those teams was Vanderbilt.
“The Commodores have three losses. You’d think that would keep them out. But Vanderbilt has an ace up its sleeve with the Alabama win, especially if the Crimson Tide win out,” writes On3’s Ari Wasserman. “Vanderbilt still has to finish its regular season with back-to-back games against Tennessee and LSU. If Vanderbilt wins them both and Alabama also wins out, the Commodores would be in the discussion at 9-3.”
Not only would the team have a great shot at making the playoffs in the first season since the new format, but it would most definitely lock up head coach Clark Lea for National Coach of the Year. The team is already making a drastic improvement from last year’s 2-10 season, including going winless in conference play.
Getting to 9-3 would be no easy task for the Commodores, as the Associated Press currently ranks both LSU and Tennessee among the Top 25 teams in the nation. Even getting to those final two games of the season without another loss would be a challenge.
The Dores will head into one of the most toughest places to play in the SEC on Saturday as they travel to Jordan-Hare Stadium to take on the Auburn Tigers. Although the team is not the conference powerhouse they were just a few short years ago, they are starting to find their identity under second-year head coach Hugh Freeze.
Getting through them would be a great start, and it is absolutely needed to keep the playoff dream alive. Doing so would make the team bowl-eligible for the first time since the 2018 season.
A lot of things would have to go right for the Commodores over the next four weeks for a playoff spot to become a reality. Still, if they can run the table of their remaining schedule, there would surely be an argument that no team in the nation has a better resume than the program, despite the loss to Georgia State earlier in the year.
