Derek Mason sounds like coach Norman Dale in the movie "Hoosiers."

No matter how hallowed the gym seems, the foul line is still 15 feet from the basket and the rim is 10 feet high.

On Saturday, Mason’s Vanderbilt Commodores will step into Notre Dame Stadium, which is flanked by iconic images like Touchdown Jesus and a Knute Rockne statue and houses enough pageantry to tell the story of college football.

Vanderbilt players will take it in, appreciate it and try to ignore it before Saturday’s kickoff (1:30 p.m., NBC) against the No. 8 Fighting Irish.

“It’s a great place for college football, a lot of history around that stadium, ghost of the four horsemen, Knute Rockne,” Mason said. “But when you get between the white line, it’s just a football field. It’s 53⅓ (yards wide) and 100 yards long.”

The Commodores will tour Notre Dame Stadium on Friday, as Mason said, to appreciate “the presence and mystique, and get it out of the way.”

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Mason has won at Notre Dame

For Mason, the initial awe of Notre Dame wore off years ago. He coached there twice as a Stanford assistant, beating the Irish in 2010 and losing in overtime in 2012.

But in both meetings, Stanford was a ranked team accustomed to playing Notre Dame, home or away, every season. This will be Vanderbilt’s highest ranked non-SEC opponent since losing to then-No. 6 Notre Dame 14-7 in Nashville in 1996. The Commodores’ only previous trip to South Bend was in 1995, a 41-0 loss to the No. 24 Irish.

Only a few Vanderbilt players even were born then, so it’s easy to understand how they evaluate Notre Dame from a distance — including a respectful recognition of the program’s history and by game film of the current team.

“They play physical, got good looking guys on the defensive side of the ball,” said running back Khari Blasingame, who was 2 months old when Vanderbilt and Notre Dame played in 1996. “But it’s just another game for us.”

Safety LaDarius Wiley, a 3-month-old at the time of the 1996 game, added, “I’m just interested in getting on the field and playing that game.”

SEC prepares Vanderbilt for Notre Dame

Notre Dame paints a picturesque scene of college football amid a sellout crowd of 80,795, and the Fighting Irish are a formidable opponent. But Vanderbilt has played in louder stadiums and against better teams. That’s just life in the SEC.

Since that 1996 Notre Dame game, the Commodores have played 27 SEC teams ranked in the top 10 over 22 years. In that same 1996 season, Vanderbilt lost 28-21 to No. 1 Florida and 14-7 to No. 9 Tennessee in SEC play.

Many of those SEC games were played in raucous road environments like Georgia’s Sanford Stadium, The Swamp in Florida, Tennessee’s enormous Neyland Stadium and Alabama’s daunting Bryant-Denny Stadium.

“Anytime you play a top-10 team, they’re going to be like what you see in the SEC,” Mason said. “From the caliber of skill players to what you see up front – it’s a physical unit on both sides of the ball – they want to own the line of scrimmage.

“In some ways, we’re playing a team that’s very similar to us with probably a better history and a better pedigree.”

Rare top-10 opponent outside SEC

While Vanderbilt routinely plays top-10 SEC teams, it has rarely done so outside of conference play. The Commodores have played only seven non-SEC games against top-10 opponents in program history, all losses.

The Commodores’ other non-conference top-10 games came against No. 8 Baylor (1953), No. 10 Baylor (1954), No. 8 Clemson (1958), No. 5 Oklahoma (1976), No. 1 Oklahoma (1977) and No. 2 Arkansas (1978), then a member of the Southwest Conference.

Like most SEC games, Vanderbilt can’t play sloppy and win on Saturday.

“We know when we go to a place like Notre Dame, you can’t make mistakes,” Mason said. “You can’t have penalties. You can’t make mistakes. You have to tackle. You have to play well on special teams. And you have to score points.”

Reach Adam Sparks at asparks@tennessean.com and on Twitter @AdamSparks.

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VANDERBILT VS. NON-SEC TOP-10 TEAMS

No. 8 Baylor (1953): Lost 47-6

No. 10 Baylor (1954): Lost 25-19

No. 8 Clemson (1958): Lost 12-7

No. 5 Oklahoma (1976): Lost 24-3

No. 1 Oklahoma (1977): Lost 25-23

No. 2 Arkansas* (1978): Lost 48-17

No. 6 Notre Dame (1996): Lost 14-7

*Southwest Conference member in 1978