Vanderbilt’s rise has been one of the biggest surprises in college football, and now the Commodores are getting a schedule that could tell everyone whether this thing is real.
Clark Lea took a program that had not won more than six games in a season since 2013 and pushed it to 7-6 in 2024. Then Vanderbilt went even further in 2025, finishing 10-3 and just missing a College Football Playoff spot. It was the first double-digit-win season in school history.
That kind of leap naturally raises the same question: was this about the roster and culture Lea built, or was it really about stars like quarterback Diego Pavia and Eli Stowers carrying the load? Lea is clearly betting on the former, because if he’s right, the Commodores’ last two seasons won’t look like a flash in the pan.
Greg McElroy thinks Vanderbilt has the best setup in the SEC to prove it. On “Always College Football,” he pointed to the Commodores as the team with the most favorable slate in the conference.
"The most gettable schedule in the SEC lands on a Vanderbilt team that has to answer the single most terrifying question in college football," McElroy said. "Was 10-3 the roster, or was it Diego Pavia and Eli Stowers? Clark Lea is betting on the roster, and the schedule is the perfect place to test that bet."
The path is still no walk in the park, but Vanderbilt avoided some of the heaviest hitters on the SEC calendar. The Commodores do have a road trip to Georgia, plus home dates with Alabama and Ole Miss. But they do not draw Oklahoma or Texas.
Instead, they’ll line up against Auburn, Kentucky, Arkansas, Florida and Mississippi State - five of the six worst teams in the SEC last season. The only one of that group Vanderbilt does not face is South Carolina.
So no, the schedule doesn’t hand Vanderbilt anything. But it does give Lea and his team a clean chance to show that 2025 was not a one-off. If the Commodores stay in the SEC race and stack another winning season, the argument gets a lot stronger that this program has changed for good.
In Other News...
This Vanderbilt Test Could Reveal A Lot About The Commodores
A September nonconference meeting with NC State should give Vanderbilt an early read on where it stands, and the matchup already looks like one that could say plenty about the Commodores. The Wolfpack bring a dual-threat quarterback in CJ Bailey, while Vanderbilts front is expected to be one of the more reliable parts of the roster, setting up a game where the trenches and the edges could matter just as much as the passing game.
For Vanderbilt, the bigger question may be how well it can keep Bailey from turning broken plays into momentum for NC State. If the Commodores can control his rushing and let their offensive line set the tone, they will have a chance to show that this team can handle a real nonconference test in mid-September. [Read more 🡒]