It was not going to happen, but it has to happen at some point, right? The Vanderbilt Commodores enter the 2025-25 college football season fresh off a breakthrough season for their standards under head coach Clark Lea. He has his alma mater feeling itself, due in large part to adding Diego Pavia from New Mexico State by way of the transfer portal last offseason. The 'Dores are still not ranked...
Look. This is a team with maybe an 8-4 ceiling, destined to win somewhere around five to seven games. It is why the Commodores did not receive a single vote in the Preseason AP Top 25 Poll. Yes, we all love it when they win, so long as it is not against your favorite team in the SEC. This is a program that can beat Alabama, but also lose to Georgia State in the same season because it did just happen.
Shockingly, Vanderbilt is the only Power Four team to have never been ranked to start the season in any AP Top 25 Poll. This is an academic power in a football-crazy conference. Oftentimes the 'Dores serve as the SEC's whipping boy, but everything can change. They have been ranked before in my adult life, and I would assume they will be ranked again one day soon. Just not to start any season...
The only way it changes is if Lea becomes the best thing to happen to Nashville since country music.
Vanderbilt remains only power conference team that has never been ranked in preseason @AP_Top25 poll
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) August 11, 2025
The worst part in all of this is this will be Pavia's final college football season, no matter what happens.
How do Vanderbilt Commodores ever crack Preseason AP Top 25 Poll?
With this being Pavia's final season of college football, it starts by having the 'Dores finish in and around the top 25 this year. Vanderbilt has shown it can hang with just about anyone in the SEC. Besides beating Alabama, they went toe-to-toe with Texas. All the while, Pavia owns Hugh Freeze, just like Liberty University owns a hospital bed. I will remember you, forever! From there, it gets harder...
In addition to navigating a schedule that is almost as hard as what Florida and Oklahoma will have to go up against this year, Vanderbilt still needs to somehow come out on top in terms of its overall standards to have even more positive momentum in 2026. This would require Lea hitting another home run in the transfer portal at quarterback. I do not know who is transferring to Vandy, though.
What I am getting at is the narrative has to change for the better for good in Nashville. Lea has to become what James Franklin was leading VU over a decade ago. More importantly, he has to stay put and not pursue another job like Franklin did with Penn State. If Kansas State can reinvent itself from a perennial Big Eight doormat to perennial Big 12 contender under Bill Snyder, anything is possible.
If Vanderbilt would have shocked Texas as well last year, maybe this could have been the year for it?