Expansion Rumors…

[vapspwi]

Aside from our own fans who are old enough to remember, I don't think those matchups carry as much weight as you think.

Yeah, most of those SEC rivalries are like 40 years out of date at this point. The people who would be passionate about them are old and dwindling.

JRjr

 

[YellowJacket4Life]

SEC doesn't want us and would only take us to keep the B1G out of the south. Then we are the red-headed step child of the conference and will get absolutely zero favors from the league office. B1G has more to gain by picking us up and helping us become relevant again. Imagine if we build our program back up to be competitive and win games against UGAg and the SEC more regularly. The B1G could start claiming parts of the south and it would only help our recruiting even more. It's all still unlikely, but possible.

I think the Big10 would use us as a prop for the southeast pipeline in recruiting and nothing more. They aren't going to bite the hands they feed them nationally just as the SEC does.

 

[YellowJacket4Life]

Well duh, which team not in the B1G/SEC wouldn't mind being in the SEC? You might as well throw in you wouldn't mind being ultra rich and movie star too.

Now that you said it, that would be nice!

 

[YellowJacket4Life]

You are assuming that the SEC would place us in a division that restores old rivalries and relatively easy trips. There is no guarantee that, since they really don't want us anyway, they would do us any favors at all.

True, but the odds are better that we would. In the Big10 we'd most likely be paired with teams we have zero history with and aren't am entertaining draw.

 

[savbandjacket]

I don’t know about that. Auburn and Tech folks did not have a hard time getting riled up for the last 3 game series. Every Auburn fan I know said they want to play us and want their tradition (the Wreck Tech Pajama Parade) back. We are still in Alabama’s fight song. Tennessee is also an easy rivalry to get going again.

The key to any rivalry is us having a team worth a piss and the ability to beat these schools. In the current status where we are choked for cash in a öööö conference, it’s not going to happen.

 

[GoGATech]

I think the Big10 would use us as a prop for the southeast pipeline in recruiting and nothing more. They aren't going to bite the hands they feed them nationally just as the SEC does.

Ohio State, Michigan, and to an extent Michigan State and Penn State already recruit nationally. Having a presence in the southeast isn't going to draw more southern kids to those schools than they already do, and it surely isn't going to draw them to Indiana or Illinois, etc. Having a weak presence in the southeast doesn't do them much good either when surrounded by SEC everywhere. If the B1G picks GT up, they will want us to be a strong program and help us get there.

 

[TampaBayJacket]

Ohio State, Michigan, and to an extent Michigan State and Penn State already recruit nationally. Having a presence in the southeast isn't going to draw more southern kids to those schools than they already do, and it surely isn't going to draw them to Indiana or Illinois, etc. Having a weak presence in the southeast doesn't do them much good either when surrounded by SEC everywhere. If the B1G picks GT up, they will want us to be a strong program and help us get there.

You'd be surprised how much easier recruiting is if you can get a kid within 200 miles to go to a game with your team in it.

 

[Supersize that order mutt]

I can't remember if it was this thread or one of the others, but there was an at least implicit claim that Dodd got out of the SEC for racial reasons. This just-posted AJC article should dispel all that BS. Since not everyone can view AJC articles, I copied the content and am pasting it here.

Film to focus on Georgia Tech, fight against segregation at 1956 Sugar Bowl

Caption

Credit: Univ. of Pittsburgh​

​

GEORGIA TECH
By Erika LeFlouria, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

34 minutes ago​

A pivotal moment in college football history is coming to the big screen with Georgia Tech and the University of Pittsburgh at the forefront. The film will focus on the impact Pitt football player Bobby Grier and Georgia Tech President Blake Van Leer made on the 1956 Sugar Bowl that shined a light on segregation in the Deep South.
In November 1955, the Sugar Bowl committee invited No. 7 Tech to take on No. 11 Pittsburgh on Jan. 2, 1956. However, the spotlight shifted from football to segregation when Georgia Gov. Marvin Griffin demanded that Tech forfeit the game if Grier, Pitt’s Black fullback, were allowed to play against their all-white team.
“The South stands at Armageddon,” Griffin said in a telegram to the Georgia Board of Regents. “The battle is joined. We cannot make the slightest concession to the enemy in this dark and lamentable hour of struggle. There is no more difference in compromising integrity of race on the playing field than in doing so in the classrooms. One break in the dike, and the relentless enemy will rush in and destroy us.”

Caption

Credit: Photo by Bill Young from the AJC archives​

​

In response to the governor’s demands, Van Leer threatened to resign if the governor dared to block Tech’s participation.
“Either we’re going to the Sugar Bowl, or you can find yourself another damn president of Georgia Tech,” Van Leer said in 1955.
Students and players from the Tech community erupted in dismay at the governor’s stance. Ultimately, the Board of Regents voted 10-1 that the Yellow Jackets could compete in New Orleans in what would be the first integrated bowl game in the Deep South.

​

Tech won the game 7-0, but the bigger victory was the breaking of the color barrier.
“I greatly admired Bobby’s courage during that time and also the way (Tech) coach (Bobby) Dodd and my teammates stood firm against the political efforts to stop us from playing that game,” said Wade Mitchell, Tech’s quarterback that season, said in a statement supplied to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for this article. “There was a lot of pressure on Bobby, but he remained true to his values, and I hope that his legacy can be shared more widely through this project.”

Caption

Credit: Photo courte​

​

Now 66 years later, Rob Grier Jr. - Bobby Grier’s son - and Blake Van Leer - the Tech president’s great-grandson - will co-produce “Bowl Game Armageddon” to honor Grier and Van Leer’s fight against Griffin’s segregationist views.
“It won’t be just a football film, it is definitely going to be a film of hope and of coming together in perseverance,” Grier told the AJC. “It’s going to be impactful for Dad, it’s going to be impactful for the Allstate Sugar Bowl, it’s going to be impactful for Atlanta, as well as for Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh, and then also Georgia Tech.”
With its connection to the story, ever-growing film industry and compelling history in the civil rights movement, the younger Grier and Van Leer knew it was only fitting to have the film produced in Atlanta. The movie currently is in the development phase and is expected to come out in two years.
The idea to tell this story initially came to the two as an idea for a book until reality TV show producer Colby Gaines suggested going the film route to reach a broader audience in light of the issues going on today.
After much planning, members of the Grier and Van Leer families visited Atlanta recently to meet with local producers and allow 89-year-old Bobby Grier to see Tech’s campus for the first time. In a surprise to them all, Mitchell met and shook hands with Grier for the first time since 1956.
“I’ve been there (Tech) a few times,” Van Leer said. “I get goose bumps every time. … But this one was, in particular, the first-time visit for the Grier bunch, but to be with them on campus was very surreal. It definitely felt historical.”

Caption

Credit: Photo courtesy of Wright M​

​

 

[GoGATech]

You'd be surprised how much easier recruiting is if you can get a kid within 200 miles to go to a game with your team in it.

What? You can't host recruits at an away game.

 

[YellowJacket4Life]

Ohio State, Michigan, and to an extent Michigan State and Penn State already recruit nationally. Having a presence in the southeast isn't going to draw more southern kids to those schools than they already do, and it surely isn't going to draw them to Indiana or Illinois, etc. Having a weak presence in the southeast doesn't do them much good either when surrounded by SEC everywhere. If the B1G picks GT up, they will want us to be a strong program and help us get there.

Want and actually having it happen are 2 very different things. I think people are severely exaggerating the impact the Big10 would have down here. The top football schools in the Big10 already recruit the SEC territory as it is now. Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and to a lesser extent Michigan State all have a good presence down here. GT suddenly being in the Big10 isn't going to move the needle much, nor will it substantially increase TV eyeballs in their favor. There are far more SEC alums in the Atlanta market than the alum network from Big10 schools. We would gain more $$$ sure, but we'd get that in the SEC while having far more regional interest.

 

[TampaBayJacket]

What? You can't host recruits at an away game.

Maybe I honestly dont know what I'm talking about here but I assumed that if Ohio State (for example) wanted Joe Recruit to see them play while they're in Atlanta, he would always be able to see them play for free?

 

[rocky top buzz]

What? You can't host recruits at an away game.

Doesn't matter, you only get 5 official visits anyway. If Penn State comes to Atlanta to play Tech, there is nothing in the rules saying James Franklin can't go see a recruit the friday night before. And while the school cannot provide tickets to the game, is there an NIL-collective that could do such a thing? Not only that, there is all the media that surrounds that school playing a local team. I think it absolutely would be a no-brainer for the B1G schools to take GT solely for the recruiting benefits. If you think I'm wrong, tell me why Louisville is a new permanent opponent for GT? It's all about recruiting metro Atlanta.

 

[WracerX]

Mizzou was ranked #5 at the end of the season within the last decade (2013). They also finished 2014 in the Top 15.

South Carolina was ranked #4 at the end of the season within the last decade (2013).

Vandy...sucks.

But yeah, the opportunities are always there in the SEC, and even bad programs can do very well once in a while.

Of course, we finished 2014 ranked #7 so it's not just an SEC thing.

So if we were to settle into the ‘bad’ SEC programs, we would still have our occasional dream season. Plus we would have a full stadium and (hopefully) better press coverage.

Same would go for the B1G, although I think we get better numbers in the SEC. However, the B1G research money probably blows that out of the water.

 

[FightOn!Jacket]

It’s because of the pact between uga, Florida, and South Carolina to vote against the admission of any of their in-state rivals.

The same pact Texas A&M had as it related to Texas? How did that work out?

Don’t be naive here. The SEC will eventually go after Clemson, FSU, Miami, UNC and probably NCSU. This is a whole new world for CFB, and if GT doesn’t wake-up and start taking athletics seriously they will end in some kind of leftover ACC, B12, merged league.

 

[savbandjacket]

The same pact Texas A&M had as it related to Texas? How did that work out?

Don’t be naive here. The SEC will eventually go after Clemson, FSU, Miami, UNC and probably NCSU. This is a whole new world for CFB, and if GT doesn’t wake-up and start taking athletics seriously they will end in some kind of leftover ACC, B12, merged league.

I was responding to a question of why people think the sec doesn’t want us. That’s been the traditional wisdom - the agreement between a few schools to not allow in state rivals. A&M was not part of that old guard pact and that pact has lost its effectiveness with an expanded conference.

 

[FightOn!Jacket]

Our new AD and coach would have the funds to upgrade the program and at least we would have a chance to recover. We need to convert the Big 10 fans into sidewalk fans for Tech.

I think you’re sort of glossing over the funds issue. GT uses the 1 of X grads are millionaires to attract students. Problem is, those said eventual alums are not giving back to the athletics programs.

Funny how oddly similar GT and UCLA are for example. UCLA has not been spending any $$$ on investing in their football program over the last 15-20 years. They are way behind their current P12 rivals and of course USC. That is all about to change dramatically. The $$ from the B1G should really elevate that program which is always overshadowed by the Trojans. While USC has definitely reinvested and will also get the same payout, UCLA will now have the brand and resources to truly compete. They already have one of the most picturesque / historical stadiums in the country.

GT needs the B1G. And the only way GT can get a place in line to join is to wake-up and start recognizing they cannot sit around anymore. The landscape of CFB has passed them by, and unless the school decides they are “all in“ then it’s all for not. This means GT needs to look at expanding a degree or 2. Don’t come back with the GA BOR as the obstacle, because it’s not. The school itself is the obstacle whether you want to agree or not. The UGA alums on the BOR are not going to prevent an expansion of adding degrees at GT.

 

[TechRush]

I was responding to a question of why people think the sec doesn’t want us. That’s been the traditional wisdom - the agreement between a few schools to not allow in state rivals. A&M was not part of that old guard pact and that pact has lost its effectiveness with an expanded conference.

I don't think it has anything to do with that. It has everything to do with money. Does Tech joining the SEC increase the per team payout or water it down? That's what is important.

 

[GoGATech]

Doesn't matter, you only get 5 official visits anyway. If Penn State comes to Atlanta to play Tech, there is nothing in the rules saying James Franklin can't go see a recruit the friday night before. And while the school cannot provide tickets to the game, is there an NIL-collective that could do such a thing? Not only that, there is all the media that surrounds that school playing a local team. I think it absolutely would be a no-brainer for the B1G schools to take GT solely for the recruiting benefits. If you think I'm wrong, tell me why Louisville is a new permanent opponent for GT? It's all about recruiting metro Atlanta.

Because GT is the closest school in the ACC to Louisville. They didn't request to be our permanent rival, the conference did it for ease of travel.

 

[JJacket]

You're a special kind of moron. They only have the best recruiting class in 10 yrs and their coach will be fantastic with a background of having played for the greatest, played in the NBA and coach alongside the greatest for nearly 15 yrs

Duke sucks.

 

[GoGATech]

Maybe I honestly dont know what I'm talking about here but I assumed that if Ohio State (for example) wanted Joe Recruit to see them play while they're in Atlanta, he would always be able to see them play for free?

I mean it's possible but a lot of kids OV during the season so likely they would be elsewhere or maybe even already on an OV to GT that weekend. Also what if you somehow get a kid to an away game that's local for him and lose? You're likely to sway him more toward the home team.