2026 Staff Pick’em Week 11
Week 10 gave the staff a bigger workload than Week 9, with nine games on the board instead of six, and the results stayed strong. The group finished 37-17 overall for a 68.5% success rate, just a hair off the elite 69.4% mark from the week before.
Cole led the way with a blistering 8-1 record. CDA and Import were right behind him at 7-2, while Tom went 6-3 and I finished 5-4.
Andrew and you miscreants landed just under .500 at 4-5.
The unanimous picks came through cleanly, with all three of those games hitting. The staff also cashed in on two of the three games that split 5-1.
The lone miss in that group was Kentucky failing to stay within a touchdown of Tennessee. On the other side, the Commentariat went against the majority in the two games the staff got right while siding with us on Kentucky.
Week 11 brings another full slate: eight SEC-SEC matchups and one ACC-ACC game. There were no unanimous selections this time around.
Cole, true to form, went with Vanderbilt to cover, which helped keep consensus from forming anywhere. Tom also broke from the pack by backing Mississippi State to stay within a field goal of Auburn.
He was the only one who believed Arkansas could avoid getting beaten comfortably by South Carolina.
Those three games were the biggest split decisions on the board, but they were not the only ones. There is a majority in five other games, and Tennessee as a 2.5-point favorite over Texas A&M was the lone evenly split pick.
In Other News...
Former Vanderbilt Receiver's Legal Case Took An Unexpected Turn
A legal case involving former Vanderbilt wide receiver Kayleb Barnett took a notable turn this week, with the Davidson County District Attorneys Office dropping the charges that had been filed against him. Barnett had been facing allegations of aggravated assault by strangulation, identity theft and false identification after his October 11 arrest, and he was set for a court hearing on November 13 before the case changed course.
Barnetts arrest had already carried football consequences, as he was dismissed from Vanderbilts program for violating team and university standards. For the Commodores, it closes one difficult chapter around a player who had once been part of the roster, even as the details behind the original allegations had already cast a shadow over his departure. [Read more 🡒]
Vanderbilt Still Draws Belief From The Win That Changed Everything
For Vanderbilt, the memory that still hangs over the program is the 2024 upset of Alabama, the kind of breakthrough that did more than fill a highlight reel. It gave Clark Leas team a proof point it had never really had before, a night that players and coaches have kept circling back to as the moment the Commodores started seeing themselves differently.
The ripple effect has been impossible to miss since then. The win helped push Vanderbilt into bowl eligibility and became part of the foundation for a program-record 10-win season in 2025, which is why the reflection around it still matters now. Lea and several players have talked about how one result can alter a programs identity, and for Vanderbilt, the bigger question is how long that belief can keep carrying over. [Read more 🡒]
Alabama Quarterback Uncertainty Just Changed Vanderbilts Week 11 Stakes
Alabamas quarterback situation has added a fresh layer of intrigue to Vanderbilts Week 11 trip, with the Crimson Tide suddenly having to sort through injury concerns at the games most important position. The matchup is set for Saturday at 12:45 p.m. ET on SEC Network, and the uncertainty comes at a time when every detail around Alabamas offense matters for a Commodores team trying to measure itself against one of the SECs standard-bearers.
Keelon Russell has been getting attention as the key variable, while backup Austin Mack has seen increased first-team reps in practice as the week has gone on. For Vanderbilt, that means the prep work has to account for more than one version of the Alabama offense, and the stakes of the game feel a little different now than they did at the start of the week. [Read more 🡒]