55 Years Ago....

QuadF

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Considering the sec still led the NCAA in over signing last decade (not sure if they still do now with the 25 rule), Dodd was right to not expect them to change. Sucks what it did to the program, but he took the high road and I respect it.
 

wesleyd21

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In what ways did it work out for us?
1990 Final Four
2004 Final Four

1990 MNC

ACC basketball is awesome
ACC football has been good for us as well.

Who knows how many Final Fours or MNC’s we’d have had we stayed in the SEC. Literally no way to tell.
 

JJacket

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Im in that Dennis Scott clip. Which would be neat if it wasnt negative 480P resolution.
It was blurred so the wemmin folks didn't get to hot seeing you in an Internet video
 

ETBee

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Georgia Tech’s Pearl Harbor.
True - especially from the Japanese perspective of how things turned out for them!

While I agree that we are a better "cultural" fit for the ACC, I have to wonder what our athletic department might look like today if we had 50+ years of the increased revenue we would have pocketed had we stayed in the SEC. Perhaps we would not have evolved into Vanderbilt #2 as most think we would have.
 

donsue

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“Sounds” can be very deceiving. Some truth to what you say, but you can not expect to be in a conference and proclaim you will not play certain teams, or that you demand they play at your stadium every year.

Regardless, instead of fighting the good, intellectual fight we picked up our marbles.

Whether we admit it or not, it damn near killed our program.

But onward and upward.
You and I have differed on this for a while now. Hindsight is always 20-20, but you have to know the SEC and the football landscape were different then. Not only was Dodd having a tough time recruiting at the level he was happy with, but he saw the major state schools like Bama, UGA, Tennessee, etc. lowering their standards. Couple that with them being unwilling to change the practice of recruiting over 100 players a year, in some cases, and they felt Tech football was behind the 8 ball.
Would they have been smart to stick it out? Maybe. But at the time, Tech didn’t give up it’s series with it’s three biggest SEC rivals; UGa, Auburn, and Tennessee.
The only thing Dodd might have done differently might have been to try and get some other powers like Notre Dame, Penn St, etc. to join them in a new conference. But that may never have worked either.
People can criticize Dodd, and that’s fine. But not only was he a helluva coach, but he always tried to do what he thought was best for Tech
 

GEETEELEE

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Alabama voted no in 1964 to keep the 140 rule in place after Bear promised he would get his president to vote with Dodd. That was the final straw that led Dodd to leave the conference and led to the feud between the Bear and Dodd. Eventually, they both reconciled and Bear tried to get us back in the SEC. Alabama voted yes in 1978 to invite us back along with Kentucky, LSU, Vandy, Florida, and Tennessee.
ok, that's what I was thinking of.
Thanks
 

ramblin57

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I lived out of state during those years and had a lot of friends who were involved in college sports in other conferences, I remember all of them coming up to me at one time or another stating that they thought GT had made a major mistake dropping out of SEC. When I first heard it, my gut said it was a mistake. My gut has been more right than wrong over the years, wish I had listened to it more than I did sometimes.
 

Vespidie

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Dennis Scott hitting the shot to beat UNC at home would not have happened otherwise. Perhaps the greatest play in GT Basketball history. I wanna cry right now again about it

True, but think about how many more NCAA tournaments we would have made in the SEC with only Kentucky to deal with as opposed to UNC, Duke, and NC State.
To assume that the history of the basketball program would have played out exactly as it did when BC put us on the map in the basketball world is a far stretch. I wouldn't trade the GT ACC basketball experience and excitement it brought us for anything the SEC may have been able to offer again, knowing the back story now about those that had an alternate agenda related to personal feelings as opposed to actual substance.

GT will never be looked upon favorably by the majority pro-UGA legislative body, same as the way the tobacco road cabal views us today. Only way to overcome the politics is to be successful despite the inherent obstacles.
 

CiraldoForever

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Bobby Dodd was a great man and coach, but everybody has some weaknesses. His were arrogance and short-sightedness The same thing that made him so confident also made him arrogant. He wouldn't take a team into the state of Mississippi, because he said he could make more money "playing Boy's High School in Atlanta." Might have made good financial sense, but made lasting enemies of Ole Miss and Mississippi State. So, I don't blame those two schools for not voting to let us back in. As far as Georgia goes, I would have never counted on them for anything.

To me, the big villain was, is and always will be Auburn. In "Dodd's Luck" on page 231, Dodd says, "It came down to two teams, Auburn and Georgia. They kept Tech out. … Those two said, "If you let Georgia Tech back in, we'll get out.'" Dodd also knew that being in the ACC would kill our attendance at football games, but we were down to two choices: Drop big time sports or join the ACC.

I'm grateful to the ACC for inviting us, but getting out of the SEC was the worst thing that ever happened to Tech sports. In fact, it was such a terrible decision, that it would have been better for Tech if Bobby Dodd had never come to Atlanta at all. The second worst decision we made was not joining the Big 10, when we had the chance a few years ago. The ACC is a fine conference. But, it doesn't fit us geographically as well as the SEC or help us financially as much as the Big 10.

Still, that's all in the past, so lets be thankful we're in a Power Five league and put everything we have into succeeding.
 

BrentwoodJacket

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Bobby Dodd was a great man and coach, but everybody has some weaknesses. His were arrogance and short-sightedness The same thing that made him so confident also made him arrogant. He wouldn't take a team into the state of Mississippi, because he said he could make more money "playing Boy's High School in Atlanta." Might have made good financial sense, but made lasting enemies of Ole Miss and Mississippi State. So, I don't blame those two schools for not voting to let us back in. As far as Georgia goes, I would have never counted on them for anything.

To me, the big villain was, is and always will be Auburn. In "Dodd's Luck" on page 231, Dodd says, "It came down to two teams, Auburn and Georgia. They kept Tech out. … Those two said, "If you let Georgia Tech back in, we'll get out.'" Dodd also knew that being in the ACC would kill our attendance at football games, but we were down to two choices: Drop big time sports or join the ACC.

I'm grateful to the ACC for inviting us, but getting out of the SEC was the worst thing that ever happened to Tech sports. In fact, it was such a terrible decision, that it would have been better for Tech if Bobby Dodd had never come to Atlanta at all. The second worst decision we made was not joining the Big 10, when we had the chance a few years ago. The ACC is a fine conference. But, it doesn't fit us geographically as well as the SEC or help us financially as much as the Big 10.

Still, that's all in the past, so lets be thankful we're in a Power Five league and put everything we have into succeeding.
Given Auburn's action, why do some of our fans still want to play them?
 

donsue

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Bobby Dodd was a great man and coach, but everybody has some weaknesses. His were arrogance and short-sightedness The same thing that made him so confident also made him arrogant. He wouldn't take a team into the state of Mississippi, because he said he could make more money "playing Boy's High School in Atlanta." Might have made good financial sense, but made lasting enemies of Ole Miss and Mississippi State. So, I don't blame those two schools for not voting to let us back in. As far as Georgia goes, I would have never counted on them for anything.

To me, the big villain was, is and always will be Auburn. In "Dodd's Luck" on page 231, Dodd says, "It came down to two teams, Auburn and Georgia. They kept Tech out. … Those two said, "If you let Georgia Tech back in, we'll get out.'" Dodd also knew that being in the ACC would kill our attendance at football games, but we were down to two choices: Drop big time sports or join the ACC.

I'm grateful to the ACC for inviting us, but getting out of the SEC was the worst thing that ever happened to Tech sports. In fact, it was such a terrible decision, that it would have been better for Tech if Bobby Dodd had never come to Atlanta at all. The second worst decision we made was not joining the Big 10, when we had the chance a few years ago. The ACC is a fine conference. But, it doesn't fit us geographically as well as the SEC or help us financially as much as the Big 10.

Still, that's all in the past, so lets be thankful we're in a Power Five league and put everything we have into succeeding.
Had Bobby Dodd “never come to Atlanta”, what do you think Tech football would have been? Seriously, an engineering school with major academic challenges, and the ONLY SEC school
he didn’t have a winning record against was Alabama, and that was close. Beating UGA 8 years in a row, owning Auburn, winning a national title, having a run in the 1950s that was unprecedented....and Tech would have been better off if he never coached here? Good grief, unreal
 

CiraldoForever

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Had Bobby Dodd “never come to Atlanta”, what do you think Tech football would have been? Seriously, an engineering school with major academic challenges, and the ONLY SEC school
he didn’t have a winning record against was Alabama, and that was close. Beating UGA 8 years in a row, owning Auburn, winning a national title, having a run in the 1950s that was unprecedented....and Tech would have been better off if he never coached here? Good grief, unreal
I think Bobby Dodd was a great man and a great coach. But, no person is bigger than the long term football program. We won national championships under Heisman, Alexander and Ross, too. Tech was an established football power before Coach Dodd took over. I'm not saying we would have done as well as we did during the years Coach Dodd was our Coach, if he hadn't been here. But, I am saying the Tech football program would have been better off in the last 55 years and into the future, if he had not gotten us out of the SEC. So, if I could choose between Bobby Dodd coming to Tech and getting us out of the SEC, or Bobby Dodd not coming to Tech and us still being in the SEC, I would choose the latter. Even Coach Dodd came to realize he had made a tragic mistake. That's why he tried two times to get us back in the SEC.
 

gnats67

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Dennis Scott hitting the shot to beat UNC at home would not have happened otherwise. Perhaps the greatest play in GT Basketball history. I wanna cry right now again about it

Great game. Dean Smith was PO'ed buddy! Ha! Loved it!
 
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CiraldoForever

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Given Auburn's action, why do some of our fans still want to play them?
I hate Auburn because of this. I pull against them every time the play any sport at all. I don't even care if Georgia beats them. I think a lot of our fans want to play them because they don't know or remember how Auburn treated us when we wanted to get back in the SEC, or maybe because some of the fans like the ACC better. But not me. I will always totally despise Auburn.
 

aeromech

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Very serious. Look at how well we recruited vs UGA when we were in the SEC compared to how we've recruited against UGA in the past 4 decades. If we start recruiting well in state now under CGC it will be a detrimental to UGA, and to a lesser extent AUB, Clemson, and Bama (probably in that order). Dodd was a great coach; but he was probably the worst AD we ever had and we've had some terrible ADs.
 

donsue

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I think Bobby Dodd was a great man and a great coach. But, no person is bigger than the long term football program. We won national championships under Heisman, Alexander and Ross, too. Tech was an established football power before Coach Dodd took over. I'm not saying we would have done as well as we did during the years Coach Dodd was our Coach, if he hadn't been here. But, I am saying the Tech football program would have been better off in the last 55 years and into the future, if he had not gotten us out of the SEC. So, if I could choose between Bobby Dodd coming to Tech and getting us out of the SEC, or Bobby Dodd not coming to Tech and us still being in the SEC, I would choose the latter. Even Coach Dodd came to realize he had made a tragic mistake. That's why he tried two times to get us back in the SEC.
Again, hindsight is 20-20. Back in the 1960s, conference affiliations weren’t near as important as they have become today. You may be right to say Tech belongs in the SEC, but there are a lot of people who believe they would have become another Vanderbilt. Certainly, the natural rivalries come from the SEC. But for Tech to have been able to be competitive in the modern SEC, they would have had to get a lot of help from the Board of Regents, and the faculty and administration.
 

donsue

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F14B52D8-A345-4852-9EE4-3C78FBC92623.jpeg
I think Bobby Dodd was a great man and a great coach. But, no person is bigger than the long term football program. We won national championships under Heisman, Alexander and Ross, too. Tech was an established football power before Coach Dodd took over. I'm not saying we would have done as well as we did during the years Coach Dodd was our Coach, if he hadn't been here. But, I am saying the Tech football program would have been better off in the last 55 years and into the future, if he had not gotten us out of the SEC. So, if I could choose between Bobby Dodd coming to Tech and getting us out of the SEC, or Bobby Dodd not coming to Tech and us still being in the SEC, I would choose the latter. Even Coach Dodd came to realize he had made a tragic mistake. That's why he tried two times to get us back in the SEC.
 

BrentwoodJacket

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Very serious. Look at how well we recruited vs UGA when we were in the SEC compared to how we've recruited against UGA in the past 4 decades. If we start recruiting well in state now under CGC it will be a detrimental to UGA, and to a lesser extent AUB, Clemson, and Bama (probably in that order). Dodd was a great coach; but he was probably the worst AD we ever had and we've had some terrible ADs.
The recruiting landscape changed. We raised our standards and dropped degrees that were less challenging. Everyone in the SEC (including Vandy) lowered their standards and added easier degrees. We are finally leveraging our unique location to compensate.
Brainless was by far our worst AD. He did nothing positive and negotiated the worst contract in college basketball history.
 
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