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McCrary's Five TDs, Win Over Old Dominion Boosts Vandy Up the Sagarin Ratings

Don't look back, Harvard.

By Christian D'Andrea
Suck on that, Central Michigan.
Suck on that, Central Michigan.

Johnny McCrary's five touchdown night led Vanderbilt to a 42-28 win over Old Dominion - and a 13-spot jump in the Sagarin ratings.

The Commodores climbed from 118th to 105th in the computerized rating system thanks to their spread-covering home win and Temple's victory over #23 East Carolina. While that doesn't exactly put this team among illustrious company, it's a solid step forward from a team that needed to build some optimism as an otherwise dismal season wound down.

Here are the FCS programs that the rankings believe would beat Vandy on a neutral field in 2014:

28. North Dakota State
62. Illinois State
66. Jacksonville State
73. New Hampshire
77. Northern Iowa
82. Villanova
85. Coastal Carolina
87. South Dakota State
88. Harvard
89. Chattanooga
94. Richmond
96. Eastern Washington
97. Liberty
98. Indiana State
100. McNeese State
101. Sam Houston State

If you're keeping track, that puts Vandy at fourth in the state of Tennessee, behind UT, Memphis, and...Chattanooga :(. Vanderbilt was only ranked ahead of two teams from BCS conferences - Kansas (#123) and Wake Forest (#140). Their closest peer in the SEC is #44 Kentucky.

Here's how Sagarin rates out the rest of the Commodores' schedule:

vs. #18 Florida (...wat)
at #5 Mississippi State
vs. #30 Tennessee

The computer rankings don't put much faith in a fourth win for Derek Mason's freshman season. Vanderbilt will get an excellent opportunity to earn it this Saturday when an up-and-down Gator team comes to Nashville.

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