Diego Pavia’s hot summer take has come back to haunt him following the Vanderbilt Commodores’ loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes on Wednesday in the ReliaQuest Bowl at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla.
During an appearance on the “Bussin’ With The Boys” podcast in June, Pavia candidly spoke about the idea of taking his talents to the Big Ten after gaining another year of eligibility. He decided to return to Vanderbilt despite offers from other programs and even took a shot at the Big Ten, saying he didn’t want to go there and implying the conference’s competition was inferior to others like the SEC.
“You want to play with the best – you don’t want to play with the Big Ten. … You ignore those calls,” Pavia said (transcribed by Nick Schultz of On3.com). “You know that.”
“But you’ve got to think about this, too,” Pavia added. “The SEC is, like, nothing. Like, okay, the Big Ten, you have Ohio State, Oregon … the SEC, it’s like week after week. You’re going to get beat on. The Big Ten, you’re not gonna get beat on with the Purdue, Nebraskas.”
Those comments did not age well, and it became much worse after Vanderbilt’s 34-27 loss to Iowa.
To his credit, though, Pavia had a big individual performance against the Hawkeyes. He went 25-of-38 for 347 passing yards and 2 touchdowns with 0 interceptions. Pavia also scored the Commodores’ only rushing touchdown.
Still, the loss to Iowa didn’t help his case about his refusal to go to the Big Ten.
