If you want to see just how dramatically college football has changed for the worse in the NIL and transfer portal era, look no further than Vanderbilt.
I have family who went to school there, worked there, who even represent the best of the institution: My beloved first cousin ran the ER there for years. I know for a fact that she does not want a crotch-grabbing, trash-talking, aggressively professional "student" to be what everyone thinks of when they hear the word "Vanderbilt." Yet here we are.
With about 10 underclassmen, and a bunch of grad students, transfers and upperclassmen that have little or no connection to Vanderbilt, Nashville, or the high bar represented therein, Vandy has become "Vandy," with very intentional quote marks. And the standard has been breached and usurped by an undeniably talented but inconceivably crass "face of the university."
I know national recruiting was already spoiling the regionality of college football fandom and the "special-ness" of loyalty and rivalries (raise you hand if you worried about players who don't care enough about beating UT and AU because they had no connection to the importance of the games in their DNA)... But observing "Vandy" now is a whole other level.
