Vanderbilt not lacking direction

NASHVILLE —  David Price couldn’t help himself.

The Vanderbilt pitcher peeked inside the Houston Astros’ locker room in February to see what kind of comfort major leaguers enjoy. What the left-hander saw made him feel pretty good -- about what he works with every day with the Commodores.

“I think we have the No. 1 facility in the nation. Our locker room, it’s the nicest locker room I’ve ever been in, just as nice as Houston’s. We have everything they have. Our batting cages are right outside our locker room. We have six cages. A weight room on top of the batting cages,” Price said. “It’s nicer than anywhere else I’ve been.”

Well, a program ranked No. 1 most of this season by Baseball America deserves quality. And even though Vanderbilt has played in only one NCAA Super Regional (2004), the Commodores are targeting Omaha and the College World Series.

Not bad for a university that eliminated its athletic department and athletic director nearly four years ago.

“Everyone wrote our obituary but us and the coaches and the kids who stayed with us,” Vanderbilt chancellor Gordon Gee said.

“The obit was Vanderbilt will have to leave the Southeastern Conference. All the coaches are leaving, and all the students are transferring. At that time, that was the general consensus. Fast forward three and a half years later, we’re having more success than Vanderbilt has ever had in its history.”

The baseball team’s No. 1 ranking is not the school’s only success. The women’s bowling team brought home Vandy’s first national title in any team sport last weekend, winning the NCAA tournament in its third year of existence. Women’s lacrosse, women’s tennis and women’s golf all have ranked nationally.

The men’s basketball team lost, 66-65, to Georgetown in the NCAA regional semifinals, and the women’s basketball team won the Southeastern Conference tournament and ranked No. 7 in the country.

The athletes don’t care that Vandy lacks an athletic director.

“To be honest, no one told me there wasn’t one,” sophomore shortstop Ryan Flaherty said. “I wouldn’t even know the difference other than people telling me there isn’t. It’s the same as it is everywhere. It’s just who’s in charge of what, and who’s responsible.”

Gee made the bold move in September 2003, deciding the only private university in the powerful Southeastern Conference needed to compete in its own way.

He fired athletic director Todd Turner and said athletics would work better if athletes got the chance to be students, too. He put vice chancellor David Williams in charge of Vanderbilt athletics, with four directors overseeing 15 teams.

Williams proudly points out coaches aren’t pressured on a daily basis.

Vanderbilt gave football Coach Bobby Johnson a 10-year extension after consecutive 2-9 seasons, and it took him two more years before rewarding that faith with a 5-6 record in 2005 and the first victory over instate rival Tennessee since 1982.

“We don’t treat coaches as sort of commodities that are going to come and go, and we’ll judge how many times you’ll take us to the tournament,” Williams said. “We’d be hypocrites if we pulled a string just because we lose a game or have a bad season.”

Eliminating the athletic department and director, Gee said, added flexibility by reducing bureaucracy. He also believes the move plays into Vanderbilt’s strengths as a small school with an enrollment of 6,378 by pulling athletes into college life.