If ACC Does Not Expand, GT, FSU, CLEM...

S

SouthGa

Varsity Lurker
Joined
Nov 19, 2001
Messages
357
should bolt to the Big East. One of those leagues has to expand or get left behind in the BCS and bowl picture, not to mention TV revenue. I wish the SEC would invite us but UGA would never let that happen, Dodd's biggest mistake.
South Georgia Jacket
 
could even be described as WORSE than Dodd's worst mistake. Wish we could get back in. But what is even more STUPID is ugag wanting to keep us out. With as many times as they have beat us since 64, just think how many more conference games they could have won and influenced the sec championship!!!
 
Dodd’s biggest mistake.

If it weren’t for Bobby Dodd, we would still be in the SEC, playing with those fine fellows from Georgia, Alabama, and Florida.

Don't make me laugh! Your stupidly shines like a beacon to idiots everywhere.
 
After 40 years of separation the SEC's relevance to TECH is ancient history. We're still geographically related but that's about it.
 
Everyone relax first. REMEMBER WE ARE ALL ON THE SAME TEAM. Getting out of the SEC was not a mistake. But, TECH should have gone right into the ACC or another conference. H. Rice wrote in his book (Lessons for Leaders) why TECH left, but I don’t thank he said why TECH didn’t go join another conference right a way. TECH is very lucky it is not playing at a lower level (it almost happen).

Now back to the issues at hand. The N.C. kids just want to play basketball. They to me don’t want anything else. That’s their history. So with them it is o.k. not to expand. Right now on the BIGEAST Website, they list 15 teams as members. That’s too many to add on to.

So lets play “MAKE A NEW CONFERENCE.” Remember we want well rounded too. We want school that education also counts too. And the conference will send someone to the NCAA’s in ALL sports. I know some school have great academics and great sports programs, but they don’t come together as one. So here we go.

1. GEORGIA TECH: Football, Baseball, and Golf are big three. Softball, Tennis, and Basketball are doing well. Plus the others have made it into NCAA’s one way or another.

2. Clemson: Baseball doing well. Football is their love. The other sports seem to be doing o.k. by want the Website looks like (Golf in top 5, others in NCAA’s).

3. Maryland: Football and Basketball the big ones. They also have 7 sports other then Fball and Bball in the Top 20.

4. UVA: Has a lot of sports programs out there. 11 are in the Top 25.

5. VA TECH: Football we know. Golf looks o.k. Others may be a problem. But I would take them.

6. FSU: Most of their teams look good. (Baseball #1, Softball #10, and Lady’s Golf and Men’s Tennis in NCAA’s)

7. Miami: Their programs look good. I’ve heard that their Med School is great.

8. Syracuse: Sports programs look good. Academics always good.

9. B.C: Good school. Programs look o.k.

10. WEST VA: Football is o.k. to good. Others may be a problem. I admit that I don’t know much about the school.

Once I get to B.C., looking at others was hard to do. WVA was just my tenth to rounded out to an even number I know there has to be others out there. I just couldn’t thank of them at this time. And looking at whom I picked at this point; I see the conference would be weak at basketball (two good teams). But this is just for fun. I would even take a GEORGIA SOUTHERN. But they would have to grow up fast. NAVY or Central Fla might be ok.

I did this for fun and you never know it could happen. Fill free to add your own to it. We may just come up with our own SUPER CONFERENCE.
 
After I posted, I saw a mistakes. In the Clemson part, “want” should be “what.” It is late and my typing is getting bad. Good night all.
 
POSTED BY WREKFAN1--"Everyone relax first. REMEMBER WE ARE ALL ON THE SAME TEAM. Getting out of the SEC was not a mistake. But, TECH should have gone right into the ACC or another conference. H. Rice wrote in his book (Lessons for Leaders) why TECH left, but I don’t thank he said why TECH didn’t go join another conference right a way. TECH is very lucky it is not playing at a lower level (it almost happen)."
.
Two corrections:
1. Getting out of the SEC WAS the single biggest mistake Ga. Tech has ever made in sports. It was a big gamble that went very wrong.
2.Tech never officially considered dropping to a lower level. That is just one of many half truths told by Rice to make himself look the savior.
.
.
BOO
 
Actually, it made perfectly good sense to go independent when Tech did: it meant more money. Without a conference, there was no need to split bowl and TV proceeds, and Tech had been hugely successful as a bowl team, and was a nationally known program. Army, Navy, ND, Penn State, Syracuse, etc. etc. were all indies doing fine. Why should Tech split bowl money with Mississippi State and Vandy, bottom feeders? In hindsight, we can make all sorts of negative comments. At the time, it was a startling but aggressive move to better Tech's future.
 
I am of the opinion that leaving the SEC was an event that still has GT football scrambling to recover. If we had never left the stadium would have never been "down-sized" after the 1985 season and the recent renovation would have happened sooner. The stadium would probably hold around 70,000 right now, if we were in the SEC East.

The decision to leave was a huge miscalculation. At the time, no one could foresee all that was to happen to the Atlanta sports scene, etc. But in hindsight, it is the single worst thing in GT sports history. We'll never be able to go back (turned down for re-admittance in 1977) so let's continue looking forward.

If the Tobacco Road schools block this expansion, we all know that we are in the wrong conference period. My gosh, UNC's President doesn't want to play Thursday night football games because it disrupts his campus (of course 9:00 Thursdayt hoops at the Dean Dome is OK), Duke and Wake struggle to draw 110,000 for 5 or 6 home games each year, which is what UT and Michigan draw in one home game. UNC and Duke are more worried about the loss of 250-500 ACC Tournament tickets than enhancing the image and quality of the conference in ALL sports!! And I have to admit that as much as I love the tradition of the ACC Tourney, it means nothing these days. It's not much more than an exhibition. Most schools already know if they are NCAA bound. It is a fun atmosphere, but nothing like the '50s. '60s & '70s.

So, if the ACC fails to expand, though it probably wouldn't happen, I'd rather see this than stay in the ACC:

Eastern 8:
Clemson
Florida State
Georgia Tech
Marshall
Maryland
Miami
Virginia Tech
West Virginia
 
Tech's absence from the SEC had nothing to do with its fortunes after that.

Tech's problems were, pure and simple, a lack of a good head coach to replace Dodd.

When Tech was winning big, there were no tickets to be found anywhere. The stadium was a perpetual sell-out. When Tech started losing, there had to be a scapegoat, and, erroneously, it was attributed to leaving the SEC.

Had Tech guessed right on the successor to Dodd and kept winning, the stands would be full to this day.

When you have three coaches in a row to produce winning teams, the fans become accustomed to winning and will not accept losing. Therefore, the older crowds will not attend as long as the program is not consistently winning.

When Tech starts winning consistently again, you will not be able to find a ticket to the games. It is as old as history, build a winning team, and the fans will fill up the stadium, even if you are playing in the Little Leagues.

wink.gif
 
I agree with you ahoisee on the winning and coaching. But remember too that going .500 with any 3 of the following six on the home schedule every year would be filling the stadium to capacity:

Tennessee
Auburn
Alabama
Florida
South Carolina
Georgia

Right now the only sellouts are:

Georgia
Clemson
Florida State

I doubt we will have more than 45,000 this year for:

NC State
UNC

And on a Thursday night I doubt we'll see 40,000 for Maryland
 
I don't believe leaving the SEC was the undoing of Tech. I believe the emergence of televised college games was the beginning of the "semi-pro" nature of college football and it started in the early 60's and worked against Tech in a number of ways.

As players began to realize they could actually make a living playing football in the burgeoning NFL (also due to television) the college game changed dramatically. Northern and Calif schools started recruiting black players nationwide which turned Ohio State, Michigan, USC, UCLA, et al into instant powerhouses. The emergence of these programs meant for a naturally lesser role for Ga Tech who had been one of the top 10 programs of the 50's.

In addition to this, while I hold Dodd in the highest regard, I believe that his recruiting began to slip in the last couple of years and he knew when to leave and Carson came in with a pretty bare cupboard. Pepper Rodgers was the next Tech coach to have anything resembling good recruiting, but the morass over his departure left Tech in the lower echelons of D1 college football. Tho a lot of people on here like to trash him, we owe an aweful lot to Bill Curry for restoring respect in Tech football tho he did get the big head in the end.

So in summation, today's game ain't nothing like the Dodd era, time has passed it by and today's college game is clearly semi-pro in nature and we have to make the best of it. Being part of a stronger expanded ACC would have a positive influence on member schools IMO.
 
Did UGA actually stand in TECH's way of returning to the ACC? According to what you hear UGA fans and Vince Dooley say, UGA would love to have TECH back in the SEC. This would solve their difficulties scheduling an intersectional game. With TECH as a conference opponent, they would have room for an additional road game and still keep a minimum of 6 home games per year. I for one would love to see TECH playing its old rivals like Bama and UT.

In my opinion, if the basketball powers stand in the way of expansion, the ACC will be the next conference to disolve. The ACC doesn't even hold the basketball clout that it once did, although that could correct itself in the future. Football-wise, the ACC is always going to have a problem having more than one BCS bowl team in its current state. Just a thought and opinion - for whatever its worth. Go Jackets!
 
Actually I don't think leaving the SEC was a terrible decision given the assumptions they probably made at the time. Why would Dodd not have assumed Tech would continue to be the big draw in Atlanta, especially with the city growing so rapidly? If that had happened we could have been the Notre Dame of the South that he envisioned. What we misread was the impact the NFL and pro sports would have on Atlanta.
 
The snuff dippers are holding the rest of the ACC hostage. I for one would suggest that the AD's who are on the outside looking in should tell the commish that enough is enough and that those schools being held hostage will bolt and form a bigger and better conf. without the snuff dippers. Lets just get on with business and quit pussy footing around.
 
Ramblin Buzz, I love your Eastern 8 conference and your thoughts on the SEC deal. A very well thought out opinion on attendance also with regards to our schedule. I would offer 4 more schools for the conference however, Syracuse, BC, Army and Navy. That gets us to 12. Two divisions for football which is going to be the primary sport of the conference unlike the ACC. I
 
Agree with Foggy. If this doesn't happen and with the losses Miami is having financially the topic won't go away. Great opportunity to bolster the ACC, especially if they can get VA Tech instead of Syracuse. If they (Dookies, UNC and no voters) nix this it will be their undoing, maybe later rather than sooner but definitely the demise of the ACC now that the topic of repositioning has been opened.
 
Pulling out of the SEC was undoubtably the biggest mistake that the GTAA has ever made and one from which we have never fully recovered. (Post this on The Hive and you will be pilloried for disloyalty. Here on Stingtalk it is accepted dogma by many of us.)

I wrote Dodd a letter at the time (no email in the 60's) telling him that he had made a terrible mistake and that the rising UGA program under Dooley was capturing the imagination and loyalty of the whole state. He wrote me back an irate letter - that I still have somewhere in the basement - telling me I didn't know what I was talking about. Unfortunately I was right.

I always thought that the real reason Dodd wanted out of the SEC was that the pressure of playing a grueling SEC schedule for many years had gotten unbearable, and because he no longer had the competitive fire in his belly - after all he had been to the top of the mountain with our program in the early 50's - he opted to become an independent ala Notre Dame and utilized the scholarship issue as a cover.

By the way, as I recall, Dodd did have a succesor in mind and lined up in Doug Dickey who was at UT. It seemed, however, that President Harrison wanted to promote from within and overrode Dodd on this, and instead selected Bud Carson.
 
GTWig, I do remember Dickey's name mentioned for the Tech job, but it also seems he had some baggage and that is the reason he left Tennessee. Is that true, or do I have some one else in mind?

Didn't Dickey go to Florida shortly thereafter and then was replaced at Florida for some reason?

I really wanted Frank Broyles to come back to Tech and take over, but I forget the reason he refused. Maybe he had become too successful at Arkansas at that time.

confused.gif
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top