Quarterback Diego Pavia ran for a first down only to stop at the LSU 1, sacrificing a chance to pad his stats so as to ensure Vanderbilt could run out the clock for a big Southeastern Conference win.
It’s the type of smart decision Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea wants as he looks for every possible edge. Such moves have never been more crucial than now.
“I feel like I’m coaching in the NFL now,” Lea said Tuesday. “I feel like every game I’ve got to be dialed into the situations and I’ve got to be on point to make sure we’re putting the team in position to be successful.”
Read between the lines and what Lea is saying is that his team is competitive in far more games than it used to be. Vandy hasn’t been this good in years—and the Commodores are not alone. Look at the standings and the rankings and teams like Georgia Tech, Texas Tech, Indiana, SMU and Cincinnati are in the mix for conference titles and playoff berths.
The transfer portal and NIL money have helped level the playing field across college football with talented players able to move around rather than waiting their turns at traditional powers. The result is the type of parity that makes the NFL must-see TV with the competition tighter than ever, especially at Power Four conferences.
SEC games currently have an average margin of victory of 10 points a game, which is on pace for the slimmest for any power conference since at least 2000 and the SEC’s lowest since 11.2 in 2006. The NFL itself has an average margin of victory of 10.1 points per game going into Week 7.
It’s a far cry from the SEC average margin of victory between 2010 and 2023, when it was at least 16.7 points for league games.
“A lot of people probably are talking about there’s more parity …,” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables says. “And I think that’s exciting for the game.”
