Tech's Samford announcement seemed like an apology!

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Tech\'s Samford announcement seemed like an apology!

My impression was that Samford made a really big 'to do' about the GT game when they made the press annoucement 10 days ago. They talked up the fact that GT was a big money game, close by, a 1a team & a step up for their program that they were looking forward to playing. Samford announcement .
Meanwhile, the host team offering the contract to itty-bitty Samford, Ga Tech, says absolutely nothing. It appeared that the GTAA didn't even want the game announced & I reckon they wanted to spring the game on the Tech fans when they sent out season ticket reorder forms. Faced with most fans already knowing about the game, from the Samford press release, the GTAA allows their annoucement to be put on the back page of the Sports section with the terms "to balance out a formidable schedule".
For all intents & purposes it struck me as an apology that they hoped no one would notice. If u have to apologize for a game like this, then why contract the game at all????
Braine has done a better than decent job with schedules so far, but Samford is a real letdown from what he has done. It makes me concerned about what he'll get for our 6th home gm in '06,'07,'08,'09.
 
Re: Tech\'s Samford announcement seemed like an apology!

It should be accompanied by a letter of apology to all season ticket holders. It is a ripoff to make us pay for a 1-AA game to get season tickets. Its a joke just like our AD
 
Re: Tech\'s Samford announcement seemed like an apology!

Didn't Gailey break in as a head coach at Samford, could that play into the scheduling of them at all?
 
Re: Tech\'s Samford announcement seemed like an apology!

Originally posted by ken04thompson:
It should be accompanied by a letter of apology to all season ticket holders. It is a ripoff to make us pay for a 1-AA game to get season tickets. Its a joke just like our AD
Click to expand...
<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">Hopefully, you're the one that's joking.

It's WAY TOO LATE to grab a D1-A opponent to come to BDS with limited scheduling flexibility. There's probably only a couple of weekends available on our schedule and if you'll take the time (that you've wasted whining about Samford), you'll find that most D1 teams schedules are already complete.

I don't want to see GT playing D1-AA teams any more than the next person, but I do understand that there's not much that could be done about next year.
 
Re: Tech\'s Samford announcement seemed like an apology!

Our out of conference schedule can be strong because our in conference shedule is not Florida, LSU, Tennessee, Alabama, Auburn, and so on and so on. UGA schedules two pansies each year with their out of conference schedules as well.

Our in conference shedule is strong, but not what UGA faces (most years) and that's about to really change and already has for the most part. Our conference has grown into one of the big boys.

Samford is not a dream date - but it's one game and it's an insult to them for us to keep slamming them.

Who cares? We have a very tough schedule. Would I rather schedule a more competitive team? Sure. But it's not the end of the world - we still have a very strong schedule.

We got caught in a bind and they filled the gaps - it happens with every team.
 
Re: Tech\'s Samford announcement seemed like an apology!

As far back as I can remember, Tech and most all football teams schedule a breather team each year. This is nothing new, it is expected at most all colleges, and will continue for most all colleges.

Do not look for it to change at any of the D1 colleges. It is Standard Of Procedure.

Father Time
 
Re: Tech\'s Samford announcement seemed like an apology!

it's sad that we had to schedule Samford but look at all that has happened and maybe, maybe you can understand what caused this to happen.

1st: ACC expansion up in the air and it still was till a few days ago literally. nobody knew for sure how it'll end up with the ACC presidents crapping all over the place.

2nd: NCAA forces 11 game seasons starting next year.

with both these happening at the same time, it must have been very very hard to schedule just one home game with no certainty to be able to return.

hey all you diehard tech supporters, if you have problem with Tech scheduling Samford, here is a novel idea:

return your season tix for the Samford game to the GTAA and get points for it.
 
Re: Tech\'s Samford announcement seemed like an apology!

Why couldn't we have scheduled UAB, like UGAg did for their Homecoming? It's just down the street from Samford and at least they are NCAA Div 1A (Conference USA).

BuzzB
 
Re: Tech\'s Samford announcement seemed like an apology!

Should've scheduled Georgia Southern.

At least it would've been a full stadium. We duck them just like Hewitt ducked Ga State and Lefty in hoops. With Samford now on the schedule, you can't give a legitimate excuse as to why you didn't invite the Statesboro Blue to BDS.
 
Re: Tech\'s Samford announcement seemed like an apology!

It is a gutless copout by the braine/clough kabal. They did not want to put in the hard work necessary that would have avoided this embarrassment. For one thing we have leverage with uconn that I am sure was not considered. Teams add D1 schools within a years notice all the time. Tulane dropped ugag and had a game with Texas instantly for example.
 
Re: Tech\'s Samford announcement seemed like an apology!

First thing is you have to find a team with an open date the same day you do. Don't think UAB does, don't know what GSU's future schedule looks like (can't find it on the internet). Second, if you're going to have to play a lower division team, why play one that would kill to beat you? Playing GSU does nothing for us.

texstinger, not sure I follow your UConn comment or your Tulane example. Are you suggesting we should kick UConn off the schedule to open a different date? I don't follow. Also it's fairly easy for Tulane to get games I would think, since Texas wouldn't worry about playing them. But the dates have to match up. My guess is that Texas approached them before they dropped Ugag and offered a bigger payout. Don't remember anybody approaching us.
 
Re: Tech\'s Samford announcement seemed like an apology!

I usually wait for most posts like this to die out, but this one keeps ending up at the top of the board and I can't stand it. You know how I get...

I once had a boss who had a sign on his door that said:

"The one with the least amount of information is always the one with the strongest opinion."

Braine is not the greatest AD of all time, I don't even like him, but he's not stupid. He considered all the options you are all talking about and made a decision with the a lot more information in front of him than we have.

I would have rather had GSU - good idea, but I doubt we could have had them - they are high profile in the world they live in. They have a schedule set way ahead of time just like we usually do.

Braine needed a team he could string along and keep or ditch with minimal consequences. I don't know why all you guys keep forgetting the turmoil with the ACC recently. We've had a lot of variables.

Samford played along and for all I know we were lucky to have them.

Some of you guys will whine about anything. The first post was good - "I'd rather have another team in the slot." That's reasonable - then the downward spiral...

It's Tech. We're on the upswing. We're winning with a bunch of young guys who will be here for a while. Enjoy.
 
Re: Tech\'s Samford announcement seemed like an apology!

NCJ, no it does not have to bee the same date. Anyone familiar with the word "improvise?" Uconn owes us at least 2 games, use that leverage to fill the 4th slot and add someone else in their slot for example. Because someone has a date filled for 9/4 next year does not mean it can not bee changed now. I do not beelieve Braine/Clough did all they could to avoid this embarrassment, same as with flunkgate & the gold seats. There is no thinking outside the box.
 
Re: Tech\'s Samford announcement seemed like an apology!

texstinger, I agree on flunkgate and the gold seats. I don't have any info to suggest one way or the other on scheduling. You're making an assumption that something else could have been done. I get your UConn comment now I think and you may be onto something. Although our leverage with UConn now is probably not too great unless we want to buy out the contract. With the ACC/Big East mess I don't know that they would be willing to help us out. You're also assuming we have a mutual open date with UConn that we could switch to and that there would be an attactive opponent available on the current UConn date who wouldn't want an immediate return trip as well. I'm not saying it couldn't work but I'm not sure what the odds would look like.

I understand not wanting to play Samford, but I just don't think it's as easy as some of us think to get something else done. And yes, I know Braine gets paid a lot of money, but that still doesn't change the realities of scheduling.

BTW, yes it probably does have to be the same date. We only have so many Saturday's to choose from. I haven't seen the exact schedule but it sounds like we have 9/4 open. We probably have an open date somewhere but that would likely mean a short week due to a Thursday night game. Juggling the schedule isn't much of an option either because our other opponents don't have that flexibility.
 
Re: Tech\'s Samford announcement seemed like an apology!

Maybe, Samford was the only team we could get at that particular time without a lot of angles and difficulty, maybe not.

I have seen it happen repetitively. Coaches go to a new school and schedule one of the prior schools they have coached at a lower division. I suspect, Samford wanted the game for the money and they knew Gailey, since he won a national championship at Samford.

They are our next door neighbor and have easy travel access to Atlanta. Evidently, the dates matched up well, and the game will count toward earning a bowl bid.

Since Chan won a national championship at Samford and the Samford fans know Gailey from that era, many of them will probably make the short trip and help fill the stadium. If Chan is going to win a national championship at Tech, this game is prelude to nostalgia.

I would imagine many of the fans at Samford have followed Chan's carreer since he won the national championship there. Some might become secondary fans of GT and attend some of the Tech games when Samford is not playing.

Also, it is possible to have some recruiting benefits from that area of Alabama due to the game and Gailey's connection there. It appears to be a good thing from the standpoint of interest, building relationships, and gaining positive headlines in the paper.

Personally, I see nothing wrong with the game. It happens all the time that coaches help out their former school with a game when it benefits both parties.

I do not want to get into the Braine debate, but cannot help it in this instance. If Braine had already been replaced by another AD, is there any doubt this complaint would never have appeared if the new AD had scheduled the same game?

Father Time
 
Re: Tech\'s Samford announcement seemed like an apology!

Ahso, you may wish to check your facts. Gailey won a Division II national championship in 1984 as head coach of Troy State. His record in his only year of coaching at Samford was 5-6 in 1993.
 
Re: Tech\'s Samford announcement seemed like an apology!

Scheduling Samford to go along with Uconn as two of the home games next year is outrageous and another rip-off of the season ticket holders.

I wonder how many of those Gold club seats will be filled for those games.
puke.gif
 
Re: Tech\'s Samford announcement seemed like an apology!

Beeware, easy solution for you then...don't go.
 
Re: Tech\'s Samford announcement seemed like an apology!

Thunder, thanks for the correction. I did have Troy State and Samford mixed up.

Father Time
 
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