Anchor Drop, June 19, 2020: 78 Days to Kickoff

Good morning.

We’re down to 78 days away from Vanderbilt football’s scheduled season opener against Mercer. #78 for the Commodores is offensive lineman Bryce Bailey. The 6’5”, 305-pound redshirt junior from Newburgh, Indiana, has played in 22 games over the last two years, with three starts. He’s appeared as both an offensive lineman and a jumbo tight end.

Optional Musical Accompaniment

A lot to unpack today. First, on the gifts front: a $5 million anonymous donation to honor Nick Zeppos, whose official title is now “Cornelius Vanderbilt Chancellor Emeritus,” apparently. And, the Farnsworth family with a gift to honor former Commodore football player Jim Cunningham.

The Hustler has a recap of Wednesday’s virtual town hall with incoming Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and interim Chancellor Susan Wente. Also in the Hustler: 10 changes to the fall semester, and incoming first-years scramble in response to the Return to Campus plan.

Soccer alum Grace Jackson writes a letter to her dad for Father’s Day (which I am suddenly acutely aware of), and former tennis player Sydney Campbell is starting a family business to promote equality.

In a podcast, Chris Lee and Seabass talk the MLB Draft and football recruiting.

In other news, Tennessee dismissed its third-leading rusher from the team after being arrested last month, and Florida is discontinuing the apparently racist (who knew?) “Gator Bait” chant.

Also, if that was too political for you, here, let’s bring things back down a notch:

In news of the stupid, Kansas basketball coach Bill Self is considering suing the NCAA because, in so many words, everybody uses shoe company bagmen to get players. (Fuck that guy, seriously.)

Updated: When are sports coming back?

MLBPA has a counterproposal of 70 games. At this point, MLB and its players’ association are a couple going through a divorce and fighting over who gets the sofa, not because either one of them wants the sofa, but because they just want to fight over something.

Meanwhile, here’s what MLB would be up against if it came back. Yes, this is a real thing.

Actual Sports on TV

Golf, again, with the Golf Channel having second-round coverage of the RBC Heritage starting at 2:00 PM CT.

There’s also the Premier League with two matches on NBC Sports: Norwich v. Southampton at 12:00 PM CT, followed by Tottenham Hotspur v. Manchester United at 2:15.