LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The college football world is upside down. Indiana is No. 2 in the country. Vanderbilt is No. 10.
FOX is sending its Big Noon Kickoff circus to Bloomington on Saturday for Indiana's game against UCLA. ESPN's College GameDay is pitching tents in Nashville for Vanderbilt-Missouri.
What bizarro world have we entered?
Louisville | Kentucky | Indiana | Eric Crawford
Is this heaven? No, it's Kentucky. The Wildcats are playing Tennessee on Saturday in an off-marquee matchup, far from the studio show lights.
The big show buses are all around, testament to the new possibilities of a changed college football landscape. But increasingly, Kentucky has missed the bus.
This is the season when the punchlines punched back. When Indiana and Vanderbilt — two programs that used to bring a butter knife to a play-calling fight — started collecting Top 10 votes like overdue library fines.
When they make the documentary of this season, it'll be called "Revenge of the Nerds."
So how did the football world wind up upside down — with Kentucky sideways?
Three big reasons:
1. The media deals didn't just help the kings. They lifted the court jesters.
A decade ago, Indiana football had the budget of a Kiwanis Club. Vanderbilt was more familiar with slide rules than slant routes.
Then the Big Ten and SEC inked media deals big enough to finance moon landings. Suddenly the lights got brighter. The checkbooks got heavier. And even the bottom feeders started shopping at the five-star store.
Indiana just locked up its head coach with an $11.6 million-a-year contract — fending off a potential Penn State threat like it was a nuisance call. Vanderbilt has poured $350 million into its athletic facilities, much of it around the football stadium.
At this point, if they redesign the athletic logo, they ought to include a construction crane.
Indiana's football budget has more than doubled since 2021 — from $24.1 million to $61.6 million, per the Knight-Newhouse database. Its facility upgrades were quiet but calculated, and earlier this year it signed a $50 million naming-rights deal for its field.
2. The worst jobs Became some of the best — and attracted the right guys
All of a sudden, when the money started rolling in, even the worst jobs in the SEC and Big Ten became some of the best jobs in the country.
Not that either school went out and found a household name.
Curt Cignetti walked into Bloomington and declared war on mediocrity. Clark Lea turned a program built for band camp into a bully.
They got backing. They got resources. They got results. And quickly. Fast enough to make traditional powers sweat through their visors.
They came into their situations with a plan, with a modern approach to the game, and with old-school football smarts.
It's a key. Because even the pros are proof -- just spending a lot of money alone doesn't guarantee success.
3. NIL, revenue sharing, and the portal flattened the map
What used to take 10 years — a facilities upgrade, a talent pipeline, a national reputation — can now happen in one.
If you've got money and the right coach, you can shop the portal like a teenager with a gift card. You're not locked into the past. You can build something new.
That's the world Indiana and Vanderbilt are thriving in.
It's how you wind up with Top 10 Heisman contenders playing quarterback at IU (Fernando Mendoza) and Vandy (Diego Pavia).
The old excuse, "It's tougher in the SEC," is out the window, if Vanderbilt is 6-1 in late October.
A word of caution. The season is half over. Kentucky has played the fifth-toughest schedule nationally. Vanderbilt's is No. 47, Indiana's No. 49. Put the Wildcats against those schedules, and maybe things are different. Who knows?
Vandy did blow out a South Carolina team that drubbed Kentucky. Indiana beat both Top 10 teams it faced. Kentucky had a chance against Ole Miss, and couldn't finish it. Had a chance against Texas, and couldn't finish.
Final bell
It's not that Kentucky has fallen apart. It's that its neighbors have figured out how to sprint.
I'm not sitting here with a laundry list of mistakes Kentucky has made. But it's plain to see: The rise of Indiana to the north, Vanderbilt to the south — and Louisville (ranked No. 19 after a road upset of No. 2 Miami) right down the road — doesn't make life any easier in Lexington.
The Wildcats are riding a nine-game SEC losing streak and have dropped 10 straight home games to Power 4 opponents.
So this Saturday, the national spotlight moves to Bloomington and Nashville. Lexington will host its annual rivalry game to considerably less fanfare.
If there's any good news, it's that it doesn't take long to get right back into the game.
Quick sips
LOWE HURT: In Kentucky's Blue-White scrimmage on Friday, Pittsburgh transfer and projected starting point guard Jaland Lowe suffered a partially separated shoulder and will be out a few weeks. Read more here.
HOME LOSSES: Louisville volleyball suffered a rarity over the weekend, back-to-back home losses. Both came at the hands of nationally ranked opponents, SMU and Pittsburgh. More here.
The Last Drop
"Very difficult loss for our players. I greatly appreciate what they've invested. This entire year, in particular the past couple weeks, to improve in a tough situation. Let's be honest. We know when you are losing games, it's real easy to cave, it's real easy to submit and give in. And none of these guys do that. They work their tail off and it was a great investment by them. And it hurts, and I feel for them. I want to thank the fans that have supported us through some tough times, and I get it, I really acknowledge that."
Mark Stoops, Kentucky coach, after Saturday's overtime loss to Texas
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