On Saturday afternoon, the Vanderbilt football program continued its winning ways with a home win over the LSU Tigers by a score of 31-24. It was a good recovery by the Commodores from their recent road loss at the hands of the Alabama Crimson Tide, which had handed them their first defeat of the 2025 college football season.
On Sunday, this week's AP Poll came out, and Vanderbilt was ranked all the way up at number 10, after being number 17 for last week. The leap allowed Vanderbilt to do something the program hasn't accomplished in the better part of a century.
“Vanderbilt is a top-10 team in college football for the first time since 1947,” reported Eric Olson of the Associated Press.
“The Commodores earned a seven-spot promotion for their first win over the Tigers since 1990,” he added. “At 6-1, Vandy is off to its best start since 1950 with two wins over ranked opponents.”
Vanderbilt has also given itself a very real chance of competing for a spot in the college football playoff so far this year. It's been a remarkable turnaround for a football program that was for so many years the laughingstock of not only the SEC but the college football world but has now vaulted itself into legitimate contention.
Unfortunately for the Commodores, things do not get easier from here, as Vanderbilt football still has a few tough games on the schedule, including road games against both Texas and Tennessee, two of the most daunting environments to play in the country.
Still, with Diego Pavia leading the charge and inserting himself into the Heisman mix in the process, nothing appears to be off the table for this Vanderbilt team.
The Commodores will next take the field on Saturday for a home game against Missouri, who is ranked at number 15 in the latest edition of the poll.
