The SEC is not a conference for nerds
In the infamous words of Cardale Jones, "we ain't come to play school".
I think if you polled every SEC fan on this exercise, 99% would say get rid of Vanderbilt. I think tons of Vanderbilt alums would gladly leave the SEC too given how little they care about sports.
Vanderbilt serves three purposes in the SEC: prop-up the league's academic standing, give everyone else an easy win, and give everyone else an occasional trip to Nashville. That's not enough to justify giving them conference payouts.
The school puts no effort into being good at sports! Despite having all the money in the world, they have horrendous facilities and do nothing to try and bring major talent into their programs all because of "academic standards". Prioritizing academics over doing everything possible to win is literally the most anti-SEC mentality you could create!
The only thing Vandy has going for them is baseball, but you know what Vanderbilt baseball brings? That's right. The Vanderbilt Whistler. The single most annoying fan in all of sports. People can complain about cowbells all they want. There is no worse noise to hear while trying to enjoy a game than what that man produces.
The Vandy Whistler is enough of a reason alone to send the Commodores to Conference-USA.