55 Years Ago....

BrentwoodJacket said:
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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Then there was Bobinski.
 
CiraldoForever said:
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.
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Did we really have a firm invitation to the Big 10? I have a hard time believing we really could have waltzed right into the Big10. But they took Rutgers and Maryland, so i guess anything is possible.
 
IM79 said:
Did we really have a firm invitation to the Big 10? I have a hard time believing we really could have waltzed right into the Big10. But they took Rutgers and Maryland, so i guess anything is possible.
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Here's the tidbit:
"Not only does Atlanta sit at the geographic heart of the SEC and the ACC, two of the conferences that make up the Power 5, but five years ago, when the Big Ten expanded to 14 teams, the league didn't take Rutgers until it had been turned down by Georgia Tech."

http://www.espn.com/college-footbal...ll-playoff-national-championship-home-atlanta

Also this as well.
https://www.landgrantholyland.com/2...tech-approved-by-big-ten-conference-expansion
 
georgiatech22 said:
Here's the tidbit:
"Not only does Atlanta sit at the geographic heart of the SEC and the ACC, two of the conferences that make up the Power 5, but five years ago, when the Big Ten expanded to 14 teams, the league didn't take Rutgers until it had been turned down by Georgia Tech."

http://www.espn.com/college-footbal...ll-playoff-national-championship-home-atlanta
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As appealing as B1G sounds on the surface, you’d still have to play Purdue, Northwestern, Minnesota, Illinois and Indiana (and now Rutgers) on a regular basis. That is not all that different than Duke, Uva, Carolina and Wake Forest in terms of stuff that interests me (which is not much at all).
 
savbandjacket said:
As appealing as B1G sounds on the surface, you’d still have to play Purdue, Northwestern, Minnesota, Illinois and Indiana (and now Rutgers) on a regular basis. That is not all that different than Duke, Uva, Carolina and Wake Forest in terms of stuff that interests me (which is not much at all).
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True, but we would have likely made a lot more money.
 
Someone that's a lot more knowledgeable about this, please explain the current ACC Grant of Rights and why it seems so impossible to leave the ACC now.
 
BrentwoodJacket said:
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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Bobinski was far worse than Braine. Both didn't do near as much damage as Dodd as AD.
 
savbandjacket said:
As appealing as B1G sounds on the surface, you’d still have to play Purdue, Northwestern, Minnesota, Illinois and Indiana (and now Rutgers) on a regular basis. That is not all that different than Duke, Uva, Carolina and Wake Forest in terms of stuff that interests me (which is not much at all).
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Some cold-ass away games.
 
I am curious about people's whose opinions on Bobby Dodd, are those people who are negative towards him those who did not grow up GT fans but became fans by attending the school? Many of us are not going to be old enough to remember directly what he did on the field. I did not attend Tech but grew up a GT fan and can vividly remember family talking about Bobby Dodd with great awe. There wasn't a Christmas or Thanksgiving where family was together and someone wasn't compared to Bobby Dodd or someone compared an action to "Dodd's luck." So even though I was born in the 80's and only know about Dodd through stories and old video, I have great admiration and respect for the man solely based on the stories passed on to me by family. Sure in hindsight it was probably a bad idea to leave the SEC but there are lots of decisions that look bad in hidsight but it doesn't make them the wrong decision. I am like most, I don't think 1990 happens if we were in the SEC. I think our academic restrictions are actually far worse than Vanderbilt because as a private school they really can do whatever they want. They could add a basket weaving major and recruit anyone if they wanted. Being a public school controlled by the BOR which is full of Georgie fans, it would be like if the New York Yankees were owned by the Boston Red Sox; there are obstacles in the way that are difficult to overcome. I think Dodd recognized this as the basis of his decision, it just did not work out. I like GT in the ACC and think in the modern CFB era it is a good fit for both sides.
 
GT flunkout said:
Bobinski was far worse than Braine. Both didn't do near as much damage as Dodd as AD.
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I love and revere Bobby Dodd, but when he was athletic director, Tech didn't have an athletic director. He was essentially an A-back playing quarterback
 
donsue said:
So much ignorance in this thread.
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Admittedly my perspective on this is solely as a student of history and the results of the athletic department. After Dodd retired as HC, the image I get is someone who put a ceiling on what GT was capable of, all the way up to encouraging Bill Curry to take the Alabama job. Facilities deteriorated. The divide between the AA and the Hill widened into a chasm. Someone who left a huge hole for Homer Rice to dig out of.

This in no way diminishes Bobby Dodd the man or the amazing national champion coach he was. I'm definitely interested in hearing other perspectives, especially those who lived through it.
 
Great coaches rarely make great AD's. I am struggling to think of one who did. The skill sets are ompletely different. This used to be a common occurence however along with the Coach/AD combination.
 
donsue said:
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.
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Since we started playing football in the ACC in 1983, our ACC records have included 3-2; 2-2-1; 3-3; 0-6; 0-7; 4-3; 4-4; 3-5; 0-8; 4-4; 4-4; 4-4; 4-4; 4-4; 4-4; 4-4; 1-7. Of course, in other seasons, we have done better. Still, I don't think we would have done worse in the SEC. In fact, being in the SEC would have made us more appealing to top players, coaches, and fans, in addition to bringing in a lot more money for coaches, recruiting and facilities. So, it's reasonable to conclude that our records during those years would have been better in the SEC than the ACC. Would we have won the National Championship in 1990, if we had been in the SEC? Go on YouTube or ROKU and look at our team playing against Virginia, Georgia and Nebraska. I think we would have won the National Championship if we had been in the SEC. The only difference is that we wouldn't have had to share it with Colorado. That's a lot different than the belief that we would have become another Vanderbilt which, by the way, is something Tennessee is trying and failing to do.
 
GT flunkout said:
Admittedly my perspective on this is solely as a student of history and the results of the athletic department. After Dodd retired as HC, the image I get is someone who put a ceiling on what GT was capable of, all the way up to encouraging Bill Curry to take the Alabama job. Facilities deteriorated. The divide between the AA and the Hill widened into a chasm. Someone who left a huge hole for Homer Rice to dig out of.

This in no way diminishes Bobby Dodd the man or the amazing national champion coach he was. I'm definitely interested in hearing other perspectives, especially those who lived through it.
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The chasm between the AA and the Hill had a lot to do with Tech leaving the SEC. SEC schools were trying to stick with Bear Bryant's Alabama. Bear Bryant would bring in 100 players a year and run off what he didn't need. Football was becoming bigger and bigger, and the excitement over bigger paydays lead schools to lower their standards, agree to virtually unlimited signing amounts, etc.

Dodd fought this. What I don't know is if Dodd and Tech fought it out of pure emotion for players well being, or some other reason. There were other pressures happening in the south. Maybe one could predict the huge influx of black players, players that just did not have the education opportunities to make it through Tech. I don't know but I have always suspected that Dodd/Tech knew their days were numbered. Historians suggest that they made a bad poker play, got caught, and chose to save face by leaving.

The crying here over leaving the SEC is over the top in my opinion. Yes, I miss playing Auburn and occasional other SEC schools. I sold peanuts/coke and I liked the energy at Grant Field when local schools came in (Clemson too). But, my gosh, Joe Petit killed Tech sports more than this decision. I liked Smiling Joe, but like so many others since, restricting college athletics because they could harm our prestigious degree is a big bunch of BS.

Today, we have found a high energy salesman. Thank God. But he's still going to run into the same problems as before. Ma Tech really doesn't care about football. Dodd gets the blame, Ma Tech did the killing.
 
georgiatech22 said:
Maybe Tom Osborne, but that's about it.
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UT has a much better AD in former coach Phil Fulmer than who they had in John Currie. Cannot believe Currie was going to hire Schiano, a man who although the most experienced head coach of all the OSU assistants, wasn't named interim head coach when Meyer was benched, and wasn't considered for the HC job when it opened a few months later. Can't be sure if Pruitt will be a success and the lady vols have fallen apart, but Mens BB rising to #1 helps.

Although the story with UT isn't that much different from GT. In GT's situation you are controlled by a BOR that wants you to fail in athletics. With UT, the governing UT system and campus chancellor have been in such disarray for 20 years it has hurt all of their athletics.
 
midatlantech said:
The chasm between the AA and the Hill had a lot to do with Tech leaving the SEC. SEC schools were trying to stick with Bear Bryant's Alabama. Bear Bryant would bring in 100 players a year and run off what he didn't need. Football was becoming bigger and bigger, and the excitement over bigger paydays lead schools to lower their standards, agree to virtually unlimited signing amounts, etc.

Dodd fought this. What I don't know is if Dodd and Tech fought it out of pure emotion for players well being, or some other reason. There were other pressures happening in the south. Maybe one could predict the huge influx of black players, players that just did not have the education opportunities to make it through Tech. I don't know but I have always suspected that Dodd/Tech knew their days were numbered. Historians suggest that they made a bad poker play, got caught, and chose to save face by leaving.

The crying here over leaving the SEC is over the top in my opinion. Yes, I miss playing Auburn and occasional other SEC schools. I sold peanuts/coke and I liked the energy at Grant Field when local schools came in (Clemson too). But, my gosh, Joe Petit killed Tech sports more than this decision. I liked Smiling Joe, but like so many others since, restricting college athletics because they could harm our prestigious degree is a big bunch of BS.

Today, we have found a high energy salesman. Thank God. But he's still going to run into the same problems as before. Ma Tech really doesn't care about football. Dodd gets the blame, Ma Tech did the killing.
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Good points.
 
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