Roses are Red, Oranges are Blue

Well, what a day in college football. Although I was a financial casualty of Vanderbilt University and can't really call myself an alumni, it's still fun to sit on the sidelines and watch. Of course, basketball is usually the only one worth watching--both the men's and women's teams seem to do pretty well. But football, well, is a whole other story. Instead of "Our football team is gonna crush yours!", Vandy's chant is more likely to be, "I bet our average ACT score is better than your team's!!" Nobody says "I'm going to Vandy to play for that storied football program" the way they probably do for Notre Dame, Florida State, Penn State, and heck, maybe even Tennessee.

Ahhh, Tennessee. The big orange. Scott's already beat me to the post about the game's results, but I thought I'd put my $.02 worth in. Heck, Steve even commented on his blog last week when he was in Rocky Top country for Memphis vs. Tennessee:

" . . .sitting around the hotel listening to Vol fans talk, I understand why we dislike them so much. They are talking to each other like they are playing the Midville School For The Gifted."

The thing is this: On Vanderbilt's campus, everybody gets psyched up for this game. I definitely got the feeling that Vandy thought of their game against Tennessee the same way Auburn thinks of Alabama or Ohio State thinks of Michigan. Maybe it's the whole "same state" thing. But nevertheless, the football programs were always so far apart, it seemed pointless to me. Yes, they were an "in-state rival", but Georgia vs. Georgia Tech it wasn't. Or ever would be, in my opinion. There would be posters around campus that said, "Crush the Orange", and then on Saturday we'd get the snot beat out of us 45-3 or something like that. My first year at Vandy, I think we were 2-9. The next year wasn't much better. So indeed it has been nice to seem them succeed this year like they have.

Then we get to today's game. Although I've never been on campus at UT, I can almost picture the tailgaters. I'm sure today's game was a "gimme". Akin to playing North Central Iowa State or Southeast Georgia College of Culinary Arts. I'm sure it was all euphoric and easy going and almost coceited--as if they didn't have to "get up" for this game because, after all, it was just Vandy. No nervousness. No "Gee, I hope we can pull this out" feeling. No inkling of fear that they'd be on the short side of the scoreboard.

Congratulations, Vandy. I know that Nashville is rocking tonight (or at least, a certain perimeter of city blocks off of West End and 21st). Former students and alumni everywhere, especially those who live in Tennessee and/or experience obnoxious Vols fans on a daily basis, have been waiting on this day for quite some time. Enjoy your bragging rights until next November.