Anchor Drop, September 16, 2019: Undefeated No More

Good morning.

Since they couldn’t just announce this last week when they announced the game time, Vanderbilt and LSU will be televised on the SEC Network this Saturday. I’m sure it’s super annoying to LSU to have to play at 11 AM.

Vanderbilt soccer suffered its first loss of the season on Sunday night, falling at Louisville 1-0 in overtime.

Men’s tennis finished its first fall event, the Commodore Scramble, on Sunday, while women’s tennis claimed six singles victories on Sunday in Puerto Rico.

Off the West End

The Pac-12 has six teams in the new AP Top 25, or as many ranked teams as the SEC. I am sure this will not cause any heads to explode in SEC country.

(Meanwhile, the Big 10 has five teams ranked — not bad. The Big 12 has three — okay. The ACC has two. Notre Dame, Boise State, and UCF are the other three ranked teams. Of course, the ACC being complete crap won’t be held against Clemson.)

Steve Rushin’s piece about the disappearance of paper tickets is a little bit “get off my lawn,” but it’s good. As an aside, I know I’ve said this before, but StubHub and the like have made it a great deal easier for large groups of opposing fans to invade Vanderbilt Stadium — unlike in days past, when Vanderbilt season-ticket holders would have had to take out a classified ad in the Tennessean if they didn’t want to go to the game and didn’t have friends who wanted the tickets. (It has also, quite likely, done a lot to increase prices on the secondary market — and don’t get me started on the sweetheart deals teams make with secondary markets to be the “official” secondary market, which usually means setting aside a certain number of tickets to go directly onto the secondary market.)

And in perhaps the dumbest use imaginable of the money spigot flowing into college athletics, schools reportedly spent an average of $8,200 for hotel accommodations prior to a home game. This is one of those things in college sports that is somehow common practice and also incredibly wasteful and stupid, because God forbid the players be left to their own devices on the Friday night before a home game.

From The Athletic ($): One-week wonder season has arrived in the AP Top 25 ... Where does the ACC go after another messy weekend? ... The 19 most interesting stats from College Football’s Week 3 ... Five decisions that defined Week 3.

Scoreboard

MLB: Red Sox 6, Phillies 3 ... Blue Jays 6, Yankees 4 ... Indians 7, Twins 5 ... Nationals 7, Braves 0 ... Orioles 8, Tigers 2 ... Astros 12, Royals 3 ... Brewers 7, Cardinals 6 ... Cubs 16, Pirates 6 ... A’s 6, Rangers 1 ... Rockies 10, Padres 5 ... Giants 2, Marlins 1 ... Angels 6, Rays 4 ... Reds 3, Diamondbacks 1 ... Mariners 11, White Sox 10 ... Dodgers 3, Mets 2.

NFL: 49ers 41, Bengals 17 ... Lions 13, Chargers 10 ... Packers 21, Vikings 16 ... Colts 19, Titans 17 ... Patriots 43, Dolphins 0 ... Bills 28, Giants 14 ... Seahawks 28, Steelers 26 ... Cowboys 31, Redskins 21 ... Ravens 23, Cardinals 17 ... Texans 13, Jaguars 12 ... Chiefs 28, Raiders 10 ... Bears 16, Broncos 14 ... Rams 27, Saints 9 ... Falcons 24, Eagles 20.

NHL Preseason: Golden Knights 6, Coyotes 2.