Definition of a winner

[gtfan1147]

I don’t know what reality should be, but it should be much better than nearing the bottom of the Power 5 in football and men’s basketball, which is where both are right now.

 

[BrentwoodJacket]

Which part? I think the mission and focus of Tech has changed, driven by a changing world (plenty of Clemsons and Auburns and Southern Polys to turn out “blue collar” engineers and techs) and changing definitions for what an elite research university is. (And that’s fair - the mission of the school comes first, rather than having the tail (athletics) wagging the dog.)

The side effect is that we have a lot of super nerds (many from other parts of the country) and foreign students that are ignorant if not hostile to sports and football culture. They never engage as a student (despite occasional attempts at outreach from GTAA), they graduate and move to another state or country for their job, and they never give football another thought. The fact that we have, with rare exception, been a slightly above average team for most of the last 30 years means that we really don’t demand their attention. If they know anything about football, it’s the unavoidable SEC stuff.

(Side anecdote - I work with a young guy at Tech who went to an academic school in California that didn’t have a football team. He says that out there, Tech is only known for academics and he didn’t even know we had a football team, despite knowing who Megatron is from the NFL.)

JRjr

This shift has not served the interests of the country, the state of Georgia, the alumni or athletics. The primary beneficiary of this shift has been the administration and the faculty.

 

[gtchief]

Based on Georgia Tech History post Bobby Dodd....a winner would be avg 7 wins a season and make a bowl every year with a run at the ACC Title/NY6/CFP and Top #10 ranking every three to 4 years.. ( See Paul Johnson era)

By your metrics the Paul Johnson era must've ended in 2014, right?

 

[vapspwi]

This shift has not served the interests of the country, the state of Georgia, the alumni or athletics. The primary beneficiary of this shift has been the administration and the faculty.

Athletics aren’t (and shouldn’t be) the driving force for a “real school.” To the extent that alumni are impacted by their alma mater after graduation, Tech rising in prestige and national prominence academically has served them pretty well.

I do wish we still had students who could pull good pranks and build good Recks for the parade, though.

JRjr

 

[BrentwoodJacket]

Athletics aren’t (and shouldn’t be) the driving force for a “real school.” To the extent that alumni are impacted by their alma mater after graduation, Tech rising in prestige and national prominence academically has served them pretty well.

I do wish we still had students who could pull good pranks and build good Recks for the parade, though.

JRjr

I do not believe our prestige and national prominence has increased.

 

[gambler]

I figure that no matter our budget or admissions process that if we are beating the inbreds on a regular basis all those other things will fall in place to some extent.

That and I know a guy that gets so drunk when the gaggers lose that I can literally piss on him and then just tell his wife he wet himself when she comes to take him home.