Northwestern vs. Vanderbilt – Beyond the Gridiron
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    Looking to impress your fellow football fans? Want to be the biggest nerd in the living room? North by Northwestern has got you covered. Beyond the Gridiron provides you with all the essential and useless trivia you need to understand our enemies on the football field. This week: Northwestern vs. Vanderbilt.

    School Size (undergraduates)
    (source: Collegeboard.com)

    NORTHWESTERN: 8,637
    VANDERBILT: 6,794

    ADVANTAGE: EVEN

    It all depends on the individual. We’re students, not numbers!

    Local City

    NORTHWESTERN: Chicago
    VANDERBILT: Nashville

    ADVANTAGE: Northwestern

    Say what you will about the freezing winters and political corruption, Chicago’s diversity and overall atmosphere gives it the thumbs-up over… is there anything other than country music down there?

    Endowment
    (source: 2009 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments)

    NORTHWESTERN: $5.45 billion

    VANDERBILT: $2.83 billion

    ADVANTAGE: Northwestern
    Money makes the world go round. Especially south of the Mason-Dixon line. Sorry, Vanderbilt, maybe next time.

    Average Stadium Capacity, 2009 (% filled)

    NORTHWESTERN: 24,190 (51.3%)

    VANDERBILT: 35,015 (88%)

    ADVANTAGE: Vanderbilt

    Disregard the fact that Ryan Field is larger than Vanderbilt Stadium. Getting eclipsed in attendance figures by a team considered lesser than the ‘Cats speaks to the massive strides necessary to establish Northwestern as a Chicago-compatible product. Maybe if we tailgated as hard as the Commodores and dressed to the nines with pearls and champagne, we could draw a few more purple fans. But the color is probably from the pneumonia.

    US News Ranking
    NORTHWESTERN: 12

    VANDERBILT: 17

    ADVANTAGE: Northwestern

    It’s a cheap shot, since these rankings are pretty trivial. But still, someone thinks we’re better than them.

    Famous Alumni – Entertainment
    To qualify, an alumnus must have completed a degree at their respective schools. So NU can’t count Cindy Crawford and Vandy can’t count Molly Sims. Shoot.
    NORTHWESTERN: Stephen Colbert

    VANDERBILT: Randy Brooks

    ADVANTAGE: Northwestern

    I couldn’t find anybody of worth in Vanderbilt’s alumni pool, so I went with the man credited for penning the holiday favorite, “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.” Enough said.

    Famous Alumni – NFL
    NORTHWESTERN: Luis Castillo, Chargers

    VANDERBILT: Jay Cutler, Bears

    ADVANTAGE: Vanderbilt

    Beyond these two, Vanderbilt fields a deeper NFL group than Northwestern, and though Cutler is coming off a dismal freshman Bears campaign, he still commands greater hubris than does San Diego’s defensive end.

    Famous Alumni – Government
    NORTHWESTERN: Rahm Emanuel

    VANDERBILT: Fred Thompson

    ADVANTAGE: Northwestern.

    OK, OK, so Thompson is eligible for the Entertainment category, but so is David Schwimmer. Meanwhile, Emanuel works for the current president. Thompson couldn’t even make it out of primaries.

    Infamous alumni
    NORTHWESTERN: Rod Blagojevich

    VANDERBILT: Al Gore

    ADVANTAGE: Northwestern

    Gore isn’t necessarily infamous, but he has been a pivotal figure in presidential elections and climate issues since his last tenure as vice president. Does not compare to the Mighty Toupee.

    Scandal
    NORTHWESTERN: Point-shaving

    VANDERBILT: Lavish administrative spending

    ADVANTAGE: Vanderbilt, erm, Northwestern?

    While Northwestern’s point-shaving incident back in 1998 was a major deal for the image of the school and its athletics, one could make the argument that former Vanderbilt chancellor Gordon Gee was worse; he spent $6 million of Vanderbilt’s money to refurbish his house, which was university-owned.

    Prominent athletics
    NORTHWESTERN VANDERBILT
    Women’s Lacrosse Men’s Baseball

    ADVANTAGE: Northwestern

    Northwestern’s got our 5-time consecutive NCAA Champions (the first to do so outside the Eastern time zone, we might add). Vanderbilt, on the other hand, has a really good baseball team. But they earned their first NCAA championship in history in bowling. We win everywhere here. Except basketball.

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