It's not always neat, but college football has a way of building a beachhead on wherever popular culture is squinting at a given moment. The 1920s belonged to Hollywood; USC won 10 games three times. Washington won the national title the year Nevermind and Ten came out; Stanford won 12 games the year The Social Network came out.
Into the Nashville Decade swaggers Vanderbilt—7-1 after beating Missouri 17–10 Saturday and now knocking on the door of a College Football Playoff appearance. The Commodores embody the dual nature of their oft-memed home city in the 2020s—eager to entertain outsiders yet skeptical of their industry's artifice. Together with Memphis and Tennessee, they are leading a watershed year for college football in the state.
