Vanderbilt ‘Anchor Down’ jerseys officially banned by NCAA
By Jack Crosby
The Vanderbilt Commodores football team just had an overall rough time in their opening game of the season on Thursday night. Not only were they routed by the Temple Owls, something few expected to happen, 37-7, but there was an issue with their jerseys during the game that had everyone talking.
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Instead of the names being on the back of the jerseys, the team plastered the “Anchor Down” slogan across the back. Well, the referees saw this as a violation of NCAA regulations, and the team would be penalized timeouts. However, the Vanderbilt staff quickly scrambled and printed out a recent e-mail they received about the jerseys being okay, and they showed it to the referees.
Problem solved, right?
Wrong.
On Friday, the SEC released the following statement, clarifying that the uniforms did break the rules and Vanderbilt can no longer sport them on the field.
"A miscommunication resulted in Vanderbilt wearing jerseys during its football game Thursday night that are not permissible under the NCAA football uniform regulations. Before production of the jerseys, Vanderbilt sought approval of the jersey design from the NCAA, which included the words “Anchor Down” on the back panel. The NCAA responded with written approval of the design as presented and Vanderbilt proceeded with the jersey production, assuming the approval was applicable to the slogan as well as the colors and overall design in the submitted layout.NCAA football regulations do not permit the use of slogans on jerseys. Vanderbilt was originally penalized for the jerseys during the game and after being shown the written correspondence, the head referee also interpreted the correspondence to mean the slogan had been approved. Vanderbilt has been notified it cannot wear the slogan on its jersey for future games and has agreed to comply."
Of course, as we saw with that 37-7 drubbing, the ‘Dores have a lot bigger things to worry about this year than what it says on the back of their jerseys.