Occasionally the Radio Guys are Right

Yooperbuzz said:
We always did better when we did NATIONAL recruiting. By my calculations (which are probably wrong but close) our players come from:
GA - 72
FL - 14
TN - 4
NC, PA, TX - 3
VA, MD, NY, PA - 2top
LA, CT, MO, CA, NJ - 1
Ireland, Belgium - 1
This looks like GA FIRST, FL maybe and the rest are just occasionally lucky. This isn't working. We have to stop the heavy concentration on GA players. The biggest problem is that outside of suburban ATL most of the GA public HS academics just ain't that good. We need to cast a very wide national net to find great players who can pass our academics. Maybe our football team should look like our student body where only 60% is from in-state.
Just my opinion.
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We need to make the private high schools across the country a focus. In Tennessee the private high schools are as good or better than the top public high schools in terms of athletic talent. The difference is the curriculum is better and the classes are smaller. These schools recruit the better athletes in the region for their teams. These should be easy to recruit since they are in major cities and play each other. The key is these prospects are more likely to be prepared for and able to get into Tech.
 
QuadF said:
I think atlanta united has proven that you can become the hometown team relatively quickly. Is that because they won or because of marketing? Is it because the games are cheap to attend with cheap concessions that really make you feel like they're happy that you're there? or did they appeal to people who already loved soccer?
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Nobody is starved for football the way people were starved for soccer. Plus, mexicans.
 
Architorture23 said:
NIL is a farce. These kids aren't getting money in exchange for marketing services except for a small few who are mostly getting a few grand from the local chicken shack.

These kids are getting NIL money from collectives of donors that were specifically created to pay players to play at a certain school.

What could NCR, Newell, Pulte, or UPS possibly stand to gain from having a college student athlete, with possible exception of maybe the 10 most nationally recognizable athletes, endorse them? Most of these fortunate 500 companies either don't need to market due to their sector, or market in a much grander scale than college football. They've got Tiger Woods, LeBron, and Serena. They don't want Jeff Sims or even Jahmyr Gibbs. They also have stockholders to whom they are accountable.
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Yeah, exactly. And even as cynical as I am, I’m amazed that NIL went directly to “legal pay to play” without even a pit stop at selling jerseys, signing autographs, or shaking hands at Booger’s Tire Emporium. How could they have gotten the NIL stuff THIS WRONG?

JRjr
 
vapspwi said:
Yeah, exactly. And even as cynical as I am, I’m amazed that NIL went directly to “legal pay to play” without even a pit stop at selling jerseys, signing autographs, or shaking hands at Booger’s Tire Emporium. How could they have gotten the NIL stuff THIS WRONG?

JRjr
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Because "they" didn't do it at all. The NCAA fought tooth and nail to prohibit completely, not budging an inch, so it eventually got to the Supreme Court, which really cares only about the law, not whether college football remains a good product. And the law is very clear that the NCAA'S rules were illegal.

Had the NCAA seen the writing on the wall and come up with a decent system on their own, this could have been kicked way down the road.
 
QuadF said:
I think atlanta united has proven that you can become the hometown team relatively quickly. Is that because they won or because of marketing? Is it because the games are cheap to attend with cheap concessions that really make you feel like they're happy that you're there? or did they appeal to people who already loved soccer?
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Or is it because they wear red and black?

As someone removed from Georgia, it is shocking to me how so many of you are delusional about your own state. uGag runs the state athletically. They have for at least 45 years. The fan base is conservatively 10:1 greater than Tech's. That is not going to change in our lifetimes. Accept it.

originalwombat said:
Most of what keeps kids from coming to Tech is not financial.
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Football-playing-kids, or student-kids?

For football-playing-kids, there were a lot better options for 5 star student-athletes before NIL, and there are even more better options for 5 star student-athletes after NIL. Tech will probably never in our lifetimes be able to compete that way, and NIL makes it even less likely. Best not to obsess on that impossible dream. But there are a lot of ways to have a really good team and compete at a high level without 5 star student-athletes, or even many 4 star student-athletes. Tech should be able to appeal to and recruit student-athletes. Which covers most college football players . . . relatively few will make it in the NFL. Tech has done it in the past. And other schools still do it.

For student-kids out of state, the main things that keep them from coming to Tech are sub-A+ high school GPAs and/or sub 1550 SATs.

aeromech said:
Because we have too many arrogant fans that think if you didn't graduate from GT you can't be a fan, and the majority of the home town did not attend GT. People want to be accepted like a 'family'; not looked down on because they didn't even go to college.
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OK, maybe you think I'm one of those. But I'm not really. I welcome anyone who wants to root for Tech football - whether you went there or not. I wish we had more "sidewalk fans."

But don't tell those of us who poured years of our lives and thousands of dollars into obtaining a Tech degree that the football team and its success is or should be more important than the academic institution which gives the team its name. Or that you're upset that so many Tech students and/or alumni DNGAF about football. Tech primarily exists to educate these students - not to field a football team. That's the hill on which I die. I'll NEVER sign up for or accept criticizing Tech students and/or alumni for not caring about football. That is ridiculous.

And to be clear, I'm not insisting on hardline high academic standards for football players. I would have no problem with Tech having a separate Sports Technology (?) major exclusively for interested football players, with no calculus requirements, and reducded admission requirements. As if the GA Board of Regents would ever allow that. But at the end of day, the education of tens of thousands of students is much more important than winning football games. And it's not close.
 
1982Jacket said:
OK, maybe you think I'm one of those. But I'm not really. I welcome anyone who wants to root for Tech football - whether you went there or not. I wish we had more "sidewalk fans."

But don't tell those of us who poured years of our lives and thousands of dollars into obtaining a Tech degree that the football team and its success is or should be more important than the academic institution which gives the team its name. Or that you're upset that so many Tech students and/or alumni DNGAF about football. Tech primarily exists to educate these students - not to field a football team. That's the hill on which I die. I'll NEVER sign up for or accept criticizing Tech students and/or alumni for not caring about football. That is ridiculous.

And to be clear, I'm not insisting on hardline high academic standards for football players. I would have no problem with Tech having a separate Sports Technology (?) major exclusively for interested football players, with no calculus requirements, and reducded admission requirements. As if the GA Board of Regents would ever allow that. But at the end of day, the education of tens of thousands of students is much more important than winning football games. And it's not close.
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I wasn't calling you or anyone else out specifically; but the last 2 paragraphs have nothing to do with what I am talking about. What I am talking about the smug 'I'm smarter than you' attitude GT fans are well known for. It is true both in the stadium and in the working world. It is an attitude that puts people off and drives off sidewalk fans. The huge difference between UGA, Auburn, UT, and most other SEC teams is that they view themselves as part of the community and try to appeal to everyone. We (not necessarily GTAA) do what we can to drive off those 'rednecks' we look down upon and have a really crappy attitude towards those with blue collar jobs in general. As result we foster a smaller, "elite" fan base. We are our own worst enemy sometimes.
 
travgt01 said:
Is anyone? There aren't many of those to go around. There's only like 25 true 5*'s every class. Probably only 1 or 2 care about playing school.

Regarding having big companies around you and getting NIL $ from them, unless they are private and the CEO is an alumi/fan ie already a booster (Waffle House and Invesco are really the only ones that come to mind for GT) it won't matter much. No public billion $ company is going to sign-off on allocating money to some unproven kid that has a small target audience. Also I think these companies don't want to align themselves with one school or team in order to not alienate the millions of fans of other schools or teams. Schools that are in small(er) towns like Tuscaloosa and Athens can partner with Athens Chevy and Tuscoloosa Ford no problem, bc 99% of their customers are already mutts or gumps.
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Jeff Sims has an NIL with Mercedes Benz EQS (electric vehicle) Brand Ambassador Program (not a local dealership). They're a publicly traded billion $ company, whose CEO is not an alum, giving an NIL deal to an unproven (in the eyes of most of the nation) kid in a program with a small target audience. A number of our athletes already intern with large corporations. NILs can be an extension of that program.
 
A friend showed me an interesting analysis someone had done regarding the percentage of fan base that had attended the school or had an immediate family member attend. The highest number was Stanford at I believe 99%. Schools like Vandy and Northwestern were high on the list. We were about 10th - the percentage for us was 95%.

Lowest was Notre Dame, way less than 1%. Duke, Bama, UGA and UNC had low percentages. For the Mutts their number was 5%. When you let that sink in you realize 19 of 20 Tech fans have direct ties to the school, while 19 of 20 Dawg fans lack those direct ties. Add in that their alumni numbers are much higher than ours, and you get a statistical view of what we are up against.

I do think this may be where leaving the SEC hurt us the most. Certainly a lack of sustained excellence figures in. I would guess that sixty years ago more than half our fans were sidewalk fans and the Mutts’ numbers were pretty close to ours. I entered elementary school in ‘62 in an Atlanta suburb. I would say the GT-UGA split in my class was 50/50, with more of the boys being Tech fans. You will not find that today, and have not since the 70’s. Atlanta is an SEC football market. It is difficult to get many folks enthused to identify with fans of an independent or ACC school.

As for Tech alums not wanting sidewalk fans, I am not sure I completely agree. What is true is that when arguments are made to change curriculum for the purpose of athletic success, you get a strong push back from many alums. That is when the arrogance of not being a Tech person kicks in.
 
QuadF said:
I think atlanta united has proven that you can become the hometown team relatively quickly. Is that because they won or because of marketing? Is it because the games are cheap to attend with cheap concessions that really make you feel like they're happy that you're there? or did they appeal to people who already loved soccer?
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It’s because cities are competing to show how much they love soccer to their other city dwelling Reddit users.
 
Atlanta hires UGA grads. UGA grads don’t like GT to the extent they don’t like that GT grads look down on them. Therefore actual Atlanta teams get way more support than GT the Atlanta school. Dumber-than-they-think-they-are UGA grads are an infestation in the city of Atlanta.
 
aeromech said:
I wasn't calling you or anyone else out specifically; but the last 2 paragraphs have nothing to do with what I am talking about. What I am talking about the smug 'I'm smarter than you' attitude GT fans are well known for. It is true both in the stadium and in the working world. It is an attitude that puts people off and drives off sidewalk fans. The huge difference between UGA, Auburn, UT, and most other SEC teams is that they view themselves as part of the community and try to appeal to everyone. We (not necessarily GTAA) do what we can to drive off those 'rednecks' we look down upon and have a really crappy attitude towards those with blue collar jobs in general. As result we foster a smaller, "elite" fan base. We are our own worst enemy sometimes.
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I dunno how much that is true. It certainly is your perception - I get that. And one's perception is one's reality, I guess.

Personally, I do not look down at all on those with "blue collar jobs." All of us need "blue collar workers" and the jobs they do! I'll spare you the stories, but that is just not how I have ever rolled. Sure, I've goofed on Muttiville grads working the drive-through window, but that's just talking smack. I don't live in Georgia and have never worked with a ton of other Tech grads, so it's not my experience that Tech grads are like that. But . . . maybe? If so . . . you're right.
 
aeromech said:
I wasn't calling you or anyone else out specifically; but the last 2 paragraphs have nothing to do with what I am talking about. What I am talking about the smug 'I'm smarter than you' attitude GT fans are well known for. It is true both in the stadium and in the working world. It is an attitude that puts people off and drives off sidewalk fans. The huge difference between UGA, Auburn, UT, and most other SEC teams is that they view themselves as part of the community and try to appeal to everyone. We (not necessarily GTAA) do what we can to drive off those 'rednecks' we look down upon and have a really crappy attitude towards those with blue collar jobs in general. As result we foster a smaller, "elite" fan base. We are our own worst enemy sometimes.
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No we don’t. This is a myth perpetuated by people who wanted to go to GT and ended up elsewhere. Those aren’t blue collar people. GT loves rednecks and blue collar folks and does more work with them than other colleges given our engineering focus.
 
GTCrew4b said:
No we don’t. This is a myth perpetuated by people who wanted to go to GT and ended up elsewhere. Those aren’t blue collar people. GT loves rednecks and blue collar folks and does more work with them than other colleges given our engineering focus.
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I think this has changed over time. Up until the 80s or 90s, Tech turned out a lot of “dirty hands” engineers that were hands on and could actually DO stuff - not that far removed from the blue collar/redneck guys.

More recently, it seems like there’s been a shift toward ivory tower engineers (as well as squishier non-technical degree programs) that are a lot farther removed from the old guys that could weld and solder and use tools.

JRjr
 
Most of these radio guys are the same retreads this city has had to listen to for 25 years. Hell, they just gave Steaky Shapiro yet another show on a sports station.
 
aeromech said:
I wasn't calling you or anyone else out specifically; but the last 2 paragraphs have nothing to do with what I am talking about. What I am talking about the smug 'I'm smarter than you' attitude GT fans are well known for. It is true both in the stadium and in the working world. It is an attitude that puts people off and drives off sidewalk fans. The huge difference between UGA, Auburn, UT, and most other SEC teams is that they view themselves as part of the community and try to appeal to everyone. We (not necessarily GTAA) do what we can to drive off those 'rednecks' we look down upon and have a really crappy attitude towards those with blue collar jobs in general. As result we foster a smaller, "elite" fan base. We are our own worst enemy sometimes.
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You and I disagree on a few things, but not on this point
 
vapspwi said:
It’s not 1952 anymore. We will never be the “hometown team” in Atlanta again. Atlanta is too big, diverse, and transplant-heavy to have a hometown team, no matter how much ATL/404 marketing we try to do.

JRjr
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Sad but true. Progress is sometimes anything but.
 
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