This has been a busy week for scheduling news, which is always a nice way to pass the time. The folks at Vanderbilt have been busy and today announced a pair of new home-and-home scheduling arrangements with Purdue and Georgia State.
Purdue and Vanderbilt will play a Big Ten vs. SEC contest in West Lafayette on September 7, 2019, but the Boilermakers will not make a return trip to Nashville for another decade. Vanderbilt is scheduled to host Purdue on September 8, 2029. The two schools have not faced each other since 1942. Vanderbilt owns a 2-0 record in the series, barring any unforeseen bowl matchups between the.... oh, who are we kidding?
The scheduling agreement between the two schools will satisfy each school’s power conference scheduling requirement in their respective conferences. Both the Big Ten and SEC will be forcing their members to schedule one game per season against another power conference opponent or power conference equivalent (Notre Dame, BYU). Purdue and Vanderbilt are often the subject of power conference scheduling requirement jokes, but who knows what kind of powerhouses they eventually be in 2029.
Vanderbilt’s power conference scheduling requirement is satisfied in 2016 (at Georgia Tech), 2017 (Kansas State), 2019 (at Purdue), 2020 (at Kansas State), 2021 (Stanford), 2022 (Wake Forest), 2023 (at Wake Forest), 2024 (at Stanford), 2025 (Stanford), and 2027 (at Stanford) and 2029 (Purdue). It must still fill the requirement in 2018 and 2026.
Purdue’s power conference scheduling commitment in the Big Ten is satisfied in 2017 (Louisville in Indianapolis, at Missouri), 2018 (Missouri, Boston College), 2020 (Notre Dame, at Boston College), 2021 (at Notre Dame), 2023 (at Virginia Tech), 2024 (Notre Dame), 2025 (at Notre Dame), 2026 (Wake Forest, Notre Dame on neutral field) and 2027 (at Wake Forest). It must still fill the requirement 2019 and 2022.
Vanderbilt’s agreement with Georgia State is noteworthy in that it will send an SEC team to the home field of a Sun Belt Conference member. This, of course, is a rare arrangement in a land where it is typical of Sun Belt programs taking a trip to an SEC stadium for a nice payday. Georgia State will host Vanderbilt in Atlanta on September 28, 2024. Vanderbilt will host the Panthers on September 20 2025. The two programs have yet to face each other.