NASHVILLE — The Vanderbilt Commodores presumably hit Tennessee with their best punch long before kickoff Saturday. They charged them $55 a ticket.

How's that for sticking it to your old rival?

Saturday was UT's time to charge. The Vols scored four touchdowns in the first 19 minutes and led by 22 points, which raised the question: Who looks worse, the Commodores or the oddsmakers?

The UT-Vanderbilt betting line opened at 12 points, which convinced me that oddsmakers are as susceptible to drug abuse as any other element of society.

I was wrong. The oddsmakers were right. Go figure.

In fact, I never have figured out these Vols. When I anticipate defense, they crank up the offense. When I anticipate a blowout, they leave their fans gasping for breath in the final minutes.

UT fans were thinking "championship" with a 28-6 lead and 11 minutes still to play in the first half. They probably were thinking "choke" with 2:16 to play and the Vols leading by a mere five points.

A UT team on the verge of winning the SEC East couldn't lose to Vanderbilt, could it?

Actually, no. UT cornerback Roshaun Fellows intercepted Jay Cutler's pass with 2:07 to play, and the Vols ran out the clock in three plays to finish off a 38-33 victory that clinched the Eastern Division title.

It's just as well that the Commodores didn't complete a miraculous comeback. They didn't have enough fans on hand to tear down the goal posts. How embarrassing would that have been?

Answer: Almost as embarrassing as losing to Vanderbilt.

You rarely will see a championship on the line in a more bizarre setting. The crowd, which was announced at 32,312, looked even smaller. And of course, it was predominantly orange.

In other words, it was nothing like your average SEC weekend.

"I don't care if it's in front of 25 people, we've got to come out and play our best game,'' said UT defensive end Parys Haralson when asked if the atmosphere contributed to a lackluster performance.

On a less eventful day, UT coach Phillip Fulmer might have cared more about what went wrong. But the aesthetics of the performance were buried beneath the bottom line. His team had just won the division championship, and — as he reminded us — had beaten Florida, Georgia and Alabama along the way.

It accomplished that with three different starting quarterbacks, an injured-riddled offensive line and an inexperienced secondary that too many passers, Cutler included, picked apart.

Don't judge the secondary solely by Cutler's statistics: 22 completions in 33 attempts for 314 yards and three touchdowns. Judge it by that last pass, too.

Even when UT has struggled mightily, it has been able to make plays like the one Fellows pulled off on Vanderbilt's last possession. The playmaker often has been as surprising as the play.

One of the playmakers against Vanderbilt was third-string quarterback Rick Clausen, who completed 19 of 30 passes for 189 yards and two touchdowns. He threw good passes and bad passes — the two worst of which were intercepted — but the bad plays didn't shake him.

Clausen led the Vols to more points than anyone else has scored on the Commodores all season. On an afternoon when UT's defense was expected to carry the load, its offense had ruled the day.

That was just one more surprise in a season of surprises.

Maybe the performance wasn't worth $55. But the game was worth a championship.

Sports editor John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knews.com.