March 25, 2015
Quick Slant is an array of brief insights and occasionally opinionated overviews of collegiate athletics in general and the Vanderbilt Commodores in particular.
Bleacher Report recently ranked collegiate indoor football facilities and not surprisingly, five of the nation’s Top 8 are members of the Southeastern Conference. Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Tennessee and…Vanderbilt. The review correctly noted that as part of our Recreation Center, the facility is used by other sport teams and university staff and students. Ohio State, Michigan and Syracuse rounded out the Top 8.
With the hair trigger of social media and the nature of today’s lightning fast news cycles, my role as Vanderbilt’s communication director has evolved from one that once upon a time largely focused upon games and student-athletes to dealing with the flash crisis of the moment. Sometimes these short-lived fusses are absurd but it is still astonishing how a couple retweets of somebody’s opinion or misrepresentation of facts can ignite a communications brush fire that requires attention.
Raise your hand if you know our men’s golf team is currently ranked No. 5 nationally. In case you missed it, last weekend the Commodores were 40-under par in a tough tournament in south Georgia. That’s right, our four counting scores were 40-under par over 54 holes. They host their annual Mason Rudolph Invitational April 3-5 at the Vanderbilt Legends Club. Admission is free; weekend golfers should come watch golf played you only can dream.
The NIT is often mentioned as a consolation prize by fans and even some coaches. While nobody would want to make missing the NCAA Tournament a steady diet, the NIT can become a heck of a lot of fun for the right teams and fan bases. Take our freshman/sophomore dominated team for example; for my two cents that home game with South Dakota State might have been the most fun one of the year and before you scoff and snicker, ask someone else who was there. It was `electric’ as Coach Stallings put it; the fans that showed up came to loudly cheer and shake gold pom pons, a refreshing throw-back that put the Magic back in Memorial.