Vanderbilt confirmed it considered quickly scheduling a 13th game.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel first reported the Commodores considered the idea “one final showcase for the College Football Playoff.”
The school said in a statement to OutKick’s Trey Wallace that “the logistic and legislative constraints didn’t make it possible.”
Vanderbilt stayed at No. 14 in the CFP committee’s rankings despite beating rival Tennessee by 21 points in its final game. Texas leapfrogged the Commodores and sits 13th on the strength of an upset of then-No. 3 Texas A&M.
In a way, the committee almost punished Vandy for taking down the Vols in such a dominant manner.
Their position in the CFP rankings pretty much means head coach Clark Lea and his players are going to miss the playoff regardless of how the conference championships shake out. It’s tough to see how Vanderbilt can move up three spots — No. 11 is the cutoff since Tulane or North Texas will claim the 12th seed — without playing.
A 13th game probably would’ve been a futile effort anyway.
Another CFP contender wasn’t incentivized to take Vanderbilt up on the offer. Anybody ranked below the Commodores wasn’t going to earn a playoff berth by beating them, so there wasn’t much to gain from the venture. Notre Dame, Texas and Miami — the three teams ranked ahead of Vandy that are off this week — had too much to lose.
One thing Vanderbilt’s outside-the-box plan might inspire, though, is a formalized play-in game. That would provide a straightforward solution to resolve the contentious arguments over who deserves the last CFP bid(s).