Save the Shield! A Vanderbilt sports blog

Just a repost of something I wrote up on VS in response to a poster claiming that last year’s loss to Duke was really as bad as our latest screw-up.

Duke finished 57th in the 2008 Sagarins, 18 spots behind Vanderbilt. The Devils finished 4-8 but were probably somewhat unlucky given what the scoring margins of their games would suggest; BCS-conference teams around them in the Sagarins finished between 5-7 and 7-5.

Army is 131st in the latest Sagarins, 10 spots behind Vanderbilt. Both teams are behind a good dozen to two dozen I-AA teams including Central Arkansas, Bill & Mary, Elon, and Villanova. I don’t think there’s any question Army’s much worse than Duke was last year.

(As an aside, think about that for a second. Vanderbilt has fielded a team that’s objectively worse than Villanova, a private school with many fewer advantages than we have. We are, however, 12 spots better than Furman.)