Pretty bold to call yourself a different city’s SEC team when the metropolitan area that you are actually home to didn’t even claim your athletic teams a few years back.
Vanderbilt University, located in Nashville, Tennessee, has had quite the turnaround when it comes to being competitive in the SEC. Not too long ago, they were the laughing stock of the conference, and especially with their football program, Vanderbilt was circled on the calendar as an automatic win. In 2023, the football program went 2-10, and didn’t win a single conference game.
However, the culture changed in 2024, when Vanderbilt went 7-6 on the year, and most importantly, beat a top-15 ranked Alabama in Nashville. That’s when the fan base tore down one of the goalposts and walked it all the way down Broadway and tossed it into the Cumberland River. It was a wild scene, and a pivotal moment in the history of Vanderbilt athletics.
They’ve followed that remarkable turnaround of a season up with an impressive 9-2 record and a No. 12 ranking as of November 24 in 2025. That has them flirting with a spot in the College Football Playoff, since it expands to 12 teams this year. And their success apparently has Vanderbilt even claiming other cities in the United States as their own.
Granted, Vandy has become a bit of “America’s College Football Team” as they’ve turned around their football program. But it’s still startling to see an advertisement like this, which was posted by college football analyst (and fanatic) Lucy Rohden. Funny enough, she was flying to New York from Nashville and saw this at LaGuardia International Airport:
“Vanderbilt has an ad running in LaGuardia calling themselves ‘New York’s SEC team.'”
Does “Vanderbilt: New York’s SEC Team” have a nice ring to it?
As you might imagine, the social media world has gotten a kick out of this. Many think the claim is absurd, and plenty of people are using the ad as inspiration to connect other schools with other random cities:
Love this. Other SEC teams should claim other out of region cities.
LSU -Philadelphia’s SEC Team. https://t.co/vH6pbz1rLQ
— Sickos Committee (@SickosCommittee) November 23, 2025
Wisconsin: Miami’s Big Ten team https://t.co/NgG02nQegj
— Ben Westlake 🇺🇸 (@benwestl_) November 24, 2025
SEC colonization must be stopped
— Ned (@ComDotNed) November 24, 2025
As a lifelong New Yorker, I can confirm this is true. It doesn’t matter if you are on the subway, at the bagel store, or sitting on your stoop. Everyone is always talking about our Commodores https://t.co/EYuOqZWFN1
— Clem (@TheClemReport) November 24, 2025
Pretty funny stuff.
So why is Vanderbilt actually doing this? Well, it’s not exactly a random move. Vandy has recently made moves to expand their footprint a bit, and for the first time in over a century and a half, they will open up a campus outside of Nashville in 2026.
That campus will be located in Manhattan, as explained on their website:
“Vanderbilt University marked a defining moment in its 150-year history with the official establishment of its first campus outside of Nashville: Vanderbilt University–New York City. Located in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, the campus will welcome an inaugural cohort of students for an Undergraduate Semester Program and a Master of Science in Business and Technology program in fall 2026.”
That right there is why Vanderbilt is starting to brand themselves as New York’s SEC school… but to avoid any confusion, they might want to start including some of that information on their “New York’s SEC Team” advertising…
