Oct. 7, 2010
Quick Slant is an array of brief insights and occasionally opinionated overviews of collegiate athletics in general and the Vanderbilt Commodores in particular.
- Vanderbilt Athletics ranks 18th among all Division I programs in the eighth annual NCSA Collegiate Power Rankings. Athletic programs are rated by a combination of athletic standing in the Directors Cup, U.S. News and World Report academic standing and graduation ratings as compiled by the NCAA. Fewer than 6% of colleges and universities earned a spot in NCSA’s Top 100. Stanford led all Division I programs while Vanderbilt was the Southeastern Conference’s highest rated university.
- Our department has begun a mentoring program in which staff volunteers have been assigned anywhere from one to three freshmen or transfers and will serve as unofficial big brothers and sisters. The goal is to assist our newcomers in a wide variety of ways with a staff member that is not one of the student-athlete’s coaches or primary support staff.
- Every year the SEC conducts a canned food drive with its member schools. This year’s drive occurred over a weekend in which the football team was on the road so we collected at our soccer game with Florida. Second Harvest Food Bank was very pleased when we delivered 500 pounds of food; thank you, soccer fans.
- Saturday’s Eastern Michigan football game has been designated Spirit Day. About 125 cheerleaders from elementary age through high school will converge on campus for an afternoon of instruction from Vanderbilt’s cheer squad, the opportunity to perform during halftime and the fun of attending the game.
- Former Vanderbilt athletic staffer and PGA TOUR executive Rick George has been named the new Chief Operating Officer of Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers franchise. He had served as Chief of Operations for the PGA TOUR the past two years, after joining the organization in 2003 as President of the Champions Tour. Rick spent seven years at Vanderbilt, first as Gerry DiNardo’s recruiting coordinator and later as an administrator.