Vandy is using TNT, all right

Sporting News, The, Oct 6, 2003 by J.C. Watts, Jr.

Dynamite, dynamite, when Vandy starts to fight. Down the field with blood to yield, if need be, save the shield. If vict'ry's won when battle's done, then Vandy's name will rise in fame. But, win or lose, the fates will choose, and Vandy's game will be the same. Dynamite, dynamite, when Vandy starts to fight! V-A-N-D-Y ... Vandy, Vandy, Go, Go, Go!

It's not exactly Boomer Sooner or The Notre Dame Victory March, but I'm sure the fight song sends chills down the spines of the Commodores faithful.

But many other fight songs have been silenced this fall. It has been a troubled time for major college athletic programs. The list is a who's who of major university athletic programs.

Alabama, Baylor, Washington, Georgia, Fresno State, Missouri, St. Bonaventure. The stories have ranged from embarrassing to tawdry to criminal.

Things clearly are getting out of control in some programs. I don't believe it's an epidemic, but a few bad apples have ruined it for the rest of the NCAA barrel. Some would attribute these bad apples to the pursuit of the almighty dollar. Major college football is big business, and going for the green often causes otherwise sane and moral men and women to do insane and immoral things.

In response to the financial travails that face its athletic department and to downsize its bureaucracy, Vanderbilt announced a unique and paradigm-shattering concept.

The school is closing the department. It fired the athletic director, though he was hired for another position. Vanderbilt's brain trust believes this move will result in closing the divide between academies and athletics on its campus and make sports a more vital part of campus culture. While I believe athletics already is just as much a part of campus culture as my left hand is part of my body, I'll concede their point for this discussion.

I assume Vandy's new director of athletics is a woman named Rosie Scenario. Rosie envisions intercollegiate athletics and intramural sports in one department as part of the Office of Student Athletics, Recreation and Wellness. An assistant vice chancellor will oversee 14 varsity sports, more than 300 varsity athletes, 37 club sports and intramural athletics programs. He will report to a vice chancellor for student life and general counsel. As if a university general counsel doesn't have enough to do.

Vanderbilt chancellor Gordon Gee says he is not engaging in "unilateral disarmament." Quite the contrary; he says Vanderbilt is "committed to competing at the highest levels in the Southeastern Conference and the NCAA ..."

ox.y.mo.ron a figure of speech in which opposite or contradictory ideas or terms are combined.

Vanderbilt competing at the highest level under this new scenario? Sounds like jumbo shrimp.

The Commodores have lost 19 consecutive SEC football games and 28 of their last 29 conference games. The team has not had a winning season in more than 20 years. The men's basketball team went 11-18 last season. To its credit, Vanderbilt has run one of the cleanest programs over the past 50 years.

Chancellor Gee's motives are pure and should be applauded. He is committed to integrating all constituencies of the university community. And he is being commended for his efforts by the president of the NCAA, Mississippi State coach Jackie Sherrill and the Maryland athletic director.

I hope this works for Vanderbilt. But I'm dubious. I'm skeptical that designing a glorified intramural program with scholarships will attract top athletes and allow competing at "the highest level."

But if Vanderbilt wants to develop community on campus and wholeness of its student athletes, while still attracting the high-quality student-athletes it desires--and if it saves the millions of dollars the school believes it will--then like the fight song says ... Vandy's name will rise in fame. And if the school is lucky, its game will be the same. Which is to say, Vanderbilt can look forward to losing 27 of its next 28 conference games.

The Commodores fight song calls it Dynamite!

It will be more like a firecracker.

J.C. Watts, a former U.S. representative from Oklahoma and quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners, is chairman of J.C. Watts Companies.