Vanderbilt hung tight with Alabama during the first half of Saturday’s college football game in Nashville. However, the Commodores played in front of a large Crimson Tide crowd at home and the student section was astonishingly empty.
It looked more like 2019 than 2026!
Don’t get me wrong, I know that a large amount of Vanderbilt students couldn’t care less about college football. That doesn’t mean that they fail to show up for at least the first quarter against a top-five opponent!
Vanderbilt expanded its student section after a historic season.
Diego Pavia and Clark Lea completely changed the culture in Nashville. Vanderbilt won 10 games for the first time in history in 2025, finished ranked inside the top-15 for the first time ever, and had a player finish as the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy. If that was not exciting enough, the Commodores were able to flip five-star quarterback Jared Curtis from the Georgia Bulldogs as the heir to Pavia’s throne during the offseason. There has never been more juice on West End!
With that in mind, Vanderbilt expanded the student section by roughly 1,000 seats for the 2026 football season. The overhaul was part of a much larger renovation to FirstBank Stadium. A university that typically neglected the football program started to care.
Perhaps the biggest catalyst for this change in mindset was Oct. 5, 2024 when Vanderbilt defeated top-ranked Alabama. Fans stormed the field and tore down the goalposts.
Although the Crimson Tide defeated the Commodores in Tuscaloosa last season, they were back in Nashville on Saturday. And for the first time, maybe ever, it was not insane to think that the Dores could beat the Tide. The odds of an upset were low, but not zero. Most major sportsbooks had Vanderbilt as 14.5-point underdogs.
There were just as many (if not more) Alabama fans in the crowd.
Unfortunately, the home fanbase did not show up for their team. As is often the case at FirstBank Stadium, there was just as much (if not more) red in the crowd than black and gold. Especially on the visitor’s side of the field.
The biggest disappointment, however, was the expanded student section. There were rumors that a system outage prevented the students from getting their tickets until late Friday night but that does not excuse the lack of attendance. This was how it looked with 15 minutes until kickoff:
This was right before kickoff:
Here was how it looked during the first quarter:
Alabama’s contingent of fans vs. Vanderbilt’s student section. pic.twitter.com/G1bB3zanQ0
— Joey Dwyer (@joey_dwy) November 14, 2026
To make matters worse, Vanderbilt could’ve used the support. It trailed Alabama by only three points at halftime!