Vanderbilt reportedly 'explored' playing a 13th game on Saturday to try to sway College Football Playoff committee

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Was Vanderbilt willing to play a game on Saturday in a last-ditch attempt to make the College Football Playoff?

According to ESPN, the school “explored the possibility of playing an exempt 13th game” on conference championship weekend. Vanderbilt is 10-2 and was ranked No. 14 in the penultimate College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday. However, “the operational and legislative requirements along with last-minute scheduling constraints could not support the game.”

The game would not have counted against Vanderbilt’s overall record, and, of course, would have necessitated an opponent. That latter factor was likely one of the “operational” challenges. We can’t imagine too many teams are willing to schedule a meaningless game without much time to prepare simply to give Vanderbilt a chance to play another game.

The Commodores are currently ranked fourth among the teams on the outside of the 12-team playoff bracket. No. 10 Notre Dame is provisionally the final at-large team in the field with the last two spots going to two of the conference champions from the ACC, American and Sun Belt conferences.

Vandy is behind 11-1 BYU, 10-2 Miami and 9-3 Texas outside the top 10. The Cougars are playing No. 4 Texas Tech for the Big 12 title on Saturday, Miami’s regular season is over and Texas already beat Vanderbilt this season.

Had Vanderbilt been able to find an opponent to play on Saturday, there’s also no guarantee the committee would have factored the game into its evaluation of the Commodores. And even if it did, it probably wouldn’t be enough to get Vandy into the playoff. BYU is in with a win over Texas Tech — and the Red Raiders would probably still be in the field too. That’d push a team like Notre Dame or Miami out of the field. At best, Vanderbilt would likely be looking at being the second or third team left out of the playoff.

If anything, QB Diego Pavia’s Heisman hopes would be the biggest beneficiary of a 13th game. Pavia (+200) is currently the No. 3 favorite for the Heisman at BetMGM behind Ohio State QB Julian Sayin and Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza at +165. The Buckeyes and Hoosiers face off in the Big Ten title game on Saturday night, and whichever QB plays the best in that game will likely win the award.

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