Anchor Drop, December 6, 2020: So just what happened?

Good morning.

Optional Musical Accompaniment

So... just what’s going on with Vanderbilt football right now? It’s a legitimate question after this:

One thing worth mentioning here is that Mississippi State and South Carolina, like Vanderbilt, are having issues compounded by players straight up leaving the team (also known as “opt-outs”): Mississippi State is under first-year head coach Mike Leach, a person famous for running off holdovers in his first year or two, and South Carolina, like Vanderbilt, fired its coach. Vanderbilt had rumors of a spate of opt-outs earlier in the week, but nobody is really sure what’s going on because the university is silent and somehow, so are the players who opted out.

(In other news, the NCAA apparently didn’t consider that players would abuse the opt-out rule to basically quit the team and yet remain on scholarship; as long as you term it a COVID opt-out, the school has to keep you on scholarship and may even be required to give you your spot on the team back later. If the rumors are true, the opt-outs this week don’t have anything to do with COVID.)

It’s not clear who is being served by the silence over the opt-outs, or by Vanderbilt’s silence about the number of players it has available. Right now, there are rumors that Vanderbilt won’t be able to play its final two games of the season. (That linked article says Georgia’s AD was told Vanderbilt was “well, well under” the 53-player minimum.) Just what is going on here, and why are our numbers so persistently low?

And speaking of opt-outs, Autumn Newby is out for the women’s basketball team. The Commodores lost their season opener 82-74 at Little Rock, with Koi Love scoring 24 points. Vanderbilt fell behind by 21 points in the second quarter. More from the Tennessean.

Yesterday’s Football

Missouri 50, Arkansas 48 ... Texas A&M 31, Auburn 20 ... Florida 31, Tennessee 19 ... Kentucky 41, South Carolina 18 ... Alabama 55, LSU 17.

Yesterday’s Basketball

Arkansas 86, Lipscomb 50 ... Houston 77, South Carolina 67.

SEC Basketball Schedule

Bad Gambling Advice: Yesterday: 0-2 ATS, 0-2 totals; Season to date: 14-18-1 ATS, 14-19 totals

Stetson at Florida (1:00 PM CT, SEC Network): Stetson +23.5, Over 141

Missouri at Wichita State (1:00 PM CT, ESPN2): Wichita State +4, Over 145.5

UTRGV at Texas A&M (3:00 PM CT, SEC Network): UTRGV +14.5, Over 134.5

Kentucky at Georgia Tech (4:00 PM CT, ESPN): Kentucky -6, Under 142

Louisiana Tech at LSU (5:00 PM CT, SEC Network): Louisiana Tech +9, Over 152