If Tennessee football checkers Vanderbilt Stadium, Commodores must leave SEC

Throw academics out the window. If Tennessee football manages to checker Vanderbilt Stadium later this year, the Vanderbilt Commodores have to be kicked out of the SEC. Vol fans have been talking on Twitter about doing that throughout this week.

Yes, Nashville is Vol country. More UT fans will be at the game when the Vols visit Vandy to end the season this year. That’s humiliating enough, but it’s forgivable. However, if the Vols manage to pull in a gimmick that’s hard enough to pull off at their home stadium in their house, you can’t keep them in the league.

No other academic program in a conference would allow that to happen. Do you think the USC Trojans could do something like that at the Stanford Cardinal? What about the Illinois Fighting Illini, Ohio State Buckeyes or Michigan Wolverines at the Northwestern Wildcats?

Just look in the ACC. When the Clemson Tigers visited the Wake Forest Demon Deacons and won in overtime last week, Wake Forest still had the vast majority of fans. There’s no excuse for Vanderbilt to allow Vol fans to pull this off.

Taking that into account, academics is an irrelevant excuse. It’s also an irrelevant reason. The SEC could add another academic school if it kicks out Vanderbilt, and many would be willing to join. Wake Forest and the Duke Blue Devils are among them.

On the other hand, there may be a credibility factor with kicking out a charter member. That’s fair. One of the hallmarks of major conferences like the SEC is once you join, you’re in. However, you have to hold up some end of the bargain if you do join.

A level of apathy that would allow Tennessee football fans to pull off something like this in Vanderbilt’s home stadium is the ultimate not holding up your end of the bargain. Yes, the standard should be extremely low for holding up your end. Vandy wouldn’t meet that standard.

No, teams shouldn’t be kicked out of a league for lack of revenue generated or lack of success for the same reason you can’t get out of a coach’s buyout if you fire them for lack of performance. On that front, Vandy should be safe.

However, allowing another team to pull off such a gimmick on their home field would be the equivalent of being able to fire a coach for cause. At that point, the SEC would have an argument to kick them out of the league.

For Vanderbilt’s sake, you almost hope Tennessee football doesn’t pull this off. Vol fans have humiliated people in the past, but this would be the worst embarrassment ever levied at a program. At that point, Vandy shouldn’t even be allowed to be an FBS program.