The Michigan - Vanderbilt Series

by David
(Tennessee)

Being a Tennessee fan, I hate to help the Michigan / Big 10 case but you need to know the history. Michigan’s record against Vanderbilt is often used to de-value their all-time record against current SEC schools. It is often, correctly pointed out that the record includes 10 wins, a tie, and no losses against Vandy. Here are the records of those Vandy teams:

2006: 4-8
1969: 4-6
1923: 5-2-1
1922: 6-0-1
1914: 2-6-0
1913: 5-3-0
1911: 8-1-0
1908: 7-2-1
1907: 5-1-1
1906: 8-1-0
1905: 7-1-0

You’ll note that in 5 of those years, Vandy was perfect but for the Michigan game. By the way, 9 of the 11 games were at Michigan. It's also worth noting that Vandy's Coach McGugin had Michigan ties, including having Michigan's coach Yost as a brother-in-law.

It might also interest you to know that, at the beginning of the 1940 season, Vandy was the all-time winningest southern team. Vandy had won 13 conference championships in the pre-SEC years (in the SIAA and Southern which at that time were more-or-less supersets of the subsequent SEC. The SIAA stretched from Virginia to Texas at one time. The Southern was more of an ACC-SEC combo). They have no SEC championships.

Through 1935, Vandy had only 2 losing seasons. They had 6 undefeated and 17 one-loss seasons during that era. Since 1960, Vandy has had only 4 winning seasons, none in the last 25.

As a Tennessee fan, I must point out that, among current SEC teams, the best overall winning percentage in the pre-SEC years belongs to Vandy but the best percentage in the SEC years belongs to Tennessee (NOT Alabama). I will concede the all-time percentage to Alabama (thanks to the pre-1911 years).

I recognize the good Vandy years were in a different era, a long time ago, but don’t de-value the wins because they were Vandy. Vandy was very good in those early years.



Thanks David, good stuff!