The Difference In The Fanbase Now And 1980/81 Is

[covingtonjacket]

The bottom line is will Tech fans and administration pony up … or will we take our ball and go home?

I think this is the relevant question at the root of all the bitching and moaning and "lmk when we're good again and I'll donate" posts.

This. Right now it’s a $$$ game, and that’s something we don’t have. We will never have more athletic money than the schools surrounding us (Clemson, uga, tennessee, auburn, Bama, Florida, fsu). With NIL + instant transfer eligibility, this is not good.

We actually do have more money than all of them. It is just buried on the school side instead of the AD. The administration has to decide if they are willing to help the AD and pony up just like the fans.

@OptionJacket I mostly agree with your post above that GT is harmed in 1000 small ways by not being relevant in-state with people who aren't leaving. I think the school gets very little long-term value from a marginally-higher admissions stat by admitting someone from far away who will leave and have little if any further involvement with the school. The plus from that admission is immediate and short-lived while the cost is on-going forever. Like you said, multiplying these costs over thousands of instances over decades explains alot.

 

[ricejacket]

The fanbase in the early 80’s was not going to tolerate losing, we seemed mad and we felt confident that the folks with influence was going to get something done. Today … the feeling I get from the post I see on Stingtalk is the game has changed, we’re not a football factory therefore we can’t compete, our alumni don’t care about sports anymore, we can’t afford a big time coach, yada yada yada yada. Maybe all this is true and the fanbase today is just going to throw in the towel … we sure didn’t in the 80’s and had a natty by 1990.

Holy öööö, where to begin with this one….
1. Student body and booster make up. Over the last 25 years the makeup of student body has changed from the student body of the 60’s that was in the core of the boosters of the 80’s with people like King and Taz. There doesn’t seem to be guys like that who are driving forces.
2. The makeup of College Football. Let’s face it, the playing field has shifted dramatically I terms of the amount of money the top athletic departments are generating compared to mid level schools like Tech.
3. Competition for fans. Many more options these days for entertainment $ compared to then. If you don’t have a competitive program apathy can set in real quick.

I could go on but those are the biggest three off the top of my head

 

[TampaBayJacket]

It's very easy to point to the symptom (W-L record) and be mad about it. It's much harder to pinpoint a root cause and try to address it. It's an oversimplification to say "coaching, duh." Like all things, it's a multivariate problem and coaching is just one part of it. If you were to put root causes into a bin, I would bet my life that coaching is a lower contributing part of the problem than the other glaring causes like curriculum and budget. You guys are in a dream world who think the best players are also real students who can handle normal college classes.

 

[OptionJacket]

I started as a instate freshman in '72 and am pretty sure that admits were about 50/50 instate/outofstate. My randomly assigned roommate was from New Jersey. Last I heard today's admits were like 60% instate which makes sense since Atlanta metro is so much larger now. That would undermine your theory a bit.

Not at all. Have you seen the makeup or the GT student body? It’s over half female. When you were at GT in the 70’s what was the male-female ratio? We all know males are bigger football fans than females (obviously there are exceptions). We are at the point today where the male in state student who cares about GT football is probably less than 10% of the student body. My son is a current freshman at GT and he still can’t believe students simply don’t care. But he now understands why. The females don’t care (that’s over 50%) then add in the out of state dudes who do care about football but are watching and rooting for ”their” teams. Then add in the international students (primarily Indian and Asian) who never step foot into Bobby Dodd.

During one of the games this fall my son had to go back to the frat house (he was a pledge) early. He was going to watch the end of the game at the frat house. He said the brothers who didn’t go to the game were watching another game and were asking him if GT was winning or losing. I think that’s when he went from a boy to man and saw the world for what it was (ha). He had always just assumed that everyone was like us (rabid fans with GT rugs, pictures, helmets, magnets all over their houses and vehicles). Even his friends growing up had their rabid loyalties to other schools. This new world of the GT campus has opened his eyes. The number of alumni who care about GT athletics are declining rapidly because of our own policies.

 

[Supersize that order mutt]

Not at all. Have you seen the makeup or the GT student body? It’s over half female. When you were at GT in the 70’s what was the male-female ratio? We all know males are bigger football fans than females (obviously there are exceptions). We are at the point today where the male in state student who cares about GT football is probably less than 10% of the student body. My son is a current freshman at GT and he still can’t believe students simply don’t care. But he now understands why. The females don’t care (that’s over 50%) then add in the out of state dudes who do care about football but are watching and rooting for ”their” teams. Then add in the international students (primarily Indian and Asian) who never step foot into Bobby Dodd.

During one of the games this fall my son had to go back to the frat house (he was a pledge) early. He was going to watch the end of the game at the frat house. He said the brothers who didn’t go to the game were watching another game and were asking him if GT was winning or losing. I think that’s when he went from a boy to man and saw the world for what it was (ha). He had always just assumed that everyone was like us (rabid fans with GT rugs, pictures, helmets, magnets all over their houses and vehicles). Even his friends growing up had their rabid loyalties to other schools. This new world of the GT campus has opened his eyes. The number of alumni who care about GT athletics are declining rapidly because of our own policies.

Very sad, but again, a winning team would get their interest.

 

[donsue]

Bobby Ross was not HC in 1980/81. Curry was, and with the exception of 1985, he sucked

Not sure he was that bad. He inherited a Tech program that was just horrible and in the midst of UGAs joke of a title run. He began building a network with the high school coaches in the state and started bringing in much better talent. Hard to know what the future would have been if he didn’t go to Bama

 

[ramblinwise1]

Not at all. Have you seen the makeup or the GT student body? It’s over half female. When you were at GT in the 70’s what was the male-female ratio? We all know males are bigger football fans than females (obviously there are exceptions). We are at the point today where the male in state student who cares about GT football is probably less than 10% of the student body. My son is a current freshman at GT and he still can’t believe students simply don’t care. But he now understands why. The females don’t care (that’s over 50%) then add in the out of state dudes who do care about football but are watching and rooting for ”their” teams. Then add in the international students (primarily Indian and Asian) who never step foot into Bobby Dodd.

During one of the games this fall my son had to go back to the frat house (he was a pledge) early. He was going to watch the end of the game at the frat house. He said the brothers who didn’t go to the game were watching another game and were asking him if GT was winning or losing. I think that’s when he went from a boy to man and saw the world for what it was (ha). He had always just assumed that everyone was like us (rabid fans with GT rugs, pictures, helmets, magnets all over their houses and vehicles). Even his friends growing up had their rabid loyalties to other schools. This new world of the GT campus has opened his eyes. The number of alumni who care about GT athletics are declining rapidly because of our own policies.

You think Tech is majority female students? There are also more on-campus students now (20K) vs about (14K) when I was there. The ratio is about 60% male/40% female.

 

[OptionJacket]

Very sad, but again, a winning team would get their interest.

True. But systematically it wouldn’t solve our problem,. Johnson won an Orange Bowl and beat UGA and here we are. Sure, winning would draw more students to games but it wouldn’t turn them into lifetime fans. Roots take a long time to grow. That’s why I’ve never and will never understand taking a 18 year old from a thousand miles away over a kid from right here in Georgia (all qualifiers being equal of course). Sorry, but other states don’t do that. The BOR loves this as their long term plan has been to turn this state over to UGA. They have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They turned GT into an international school while giving UGA an engineering program. And we did nothing. Now that they have relegated our sports and UGA is at a all time high don’t be surprised when their engineering program keeps growing. Those guys have a plan and will keep executing it until we drop athletics and they take it all.

 

[OptionJacket]

You think Tech is majority female students? There are also more on-campus students now (20K) vs about (14K) when I was there.

Ok. The 2021 admitted class was 58% male 42% female. I was looking at the early admission number from last month. Last month the early admits were 52% female and 48% male. GT will soon be 50/50. But the point stands compared to classes in the 70’s. In 1970 females made up 1.4% of the student body. This is all about why doesn’t our alumni donate and show up. It’s because our alumni aren’t the same as the old days.

 

[andrew]

The fanbase in the early 80’s was not going to tolerate losing, we seemed mad and we felt confident that the folks with influence was going to get something done. Today … the feeling I get from the post I see on Stingtalk is the game has changed, we’re not a football factory therefore we can’t compete, our alumni don’t care about sports anymore, we can’t afford a big time coach, yada yada yada yada. Maybe all this is true and the fanbase today is just going to throw in the towel … we sure didn’t in the 80’s and had a natty by 1990.

I think you have accurately described the different feelings in the fanbases during those two eras. Unfortunately you haven't even suggested a reason why the fans today are wrong about the impact of NIL and money in today's game.

 

[Supersize that order mutt]

True. But systematically it wouldn’t solve our problem,. Johnson won an Orange Bowl and beat UGA and here we are. Sure, winning would draw more students to games but it wouldn’t turn them into lifetime fans. Roots take a long time to grow. That’s why I’ve never and will never understand taking a 18 year old from a thousand miles away over a kid from right here in Georgia (all qualifiers being equal of course). Sorry, but other states don’t do that. The BOR loves this as their long term plan has been to turn this state over to UGA. They have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They turned GT into an international school while giving UGA an engineering program. And we did nothing. Now that they have relegated our sports and UGA is at a all time high don’t be surprised when their engineering program keeps growing. Those guys have a plan and will keep executing it until we drop athletics and they take it all.

The only sport affected by the situation at Tech vs that at Georgia is football. We are still better than, or at least as good as, the mutts in basketball, golf, baseball, and increasingly womens' basketball and volleyball. Of course those are all pretty much international sports, with the possible exception of baseball, but CONSISTENTLY RANKED seasons in football, could very easily turn things around, even with the students

 

[Tampa Jacket]

I’m sure you were a fan in 1980… but the rest of this is utter baloney.

Really.?
You think a Georgia Tech AD who is last in the ACC in $$$ and can’t even fill a 55,000 seat stadium unless it’s full of Clemson and Georgia fans is going to fare well in bidding war$ with recruits?
Or do you think that we are going to be able to convince the starters for Alabama and Georgia to transfer to Georgia Tech to play while our starters stay firmly committed to school—-Georgia Tech becomes the school of choice to play CFB.
What part of this is baloney?

 

[StraightFresh]

You can always look at the first generation for the answers. GT did this to themselves when they abandoned their fanbase. You can’t blame a random kid from the burbs of Chicago who grew up a Michigan fan (and will remain one due to family ties) who got accepted into GT over a kid from Cordele who grew up a GT fan who didn’t get accepted because GT wanted to ”grow its reach” for why the stadium is empty. Multiply this by thousands over a 40 year period and here we are.

Unfortunately, there is no going back at this point. GT is an international school now where a niche sport like American football has been relegated. Yesterday was out of state early admission acceptance. 2900 out of state were accepted. A month ago was the in state early admission where 2400 were accepted. Now by the time the numbers shake out you’ll have about 60% from in state and 40% out of state who enroll in Fall 2022. And these percentages have been fairly consistent lately. By the time the rest of the old guard dies off there will be very few diehard fans to replace them as we are seeing now. I’ve seen GT family after GT family in my South Georgia area send their money to UGA because their high level kids got passed by GT. It’s freaking sad to see the dad sit by himself watching GT games while the rest of the family is at someone else’s house watching the UGA game. And yes, the pathway option is there but how many 19 year olds are going to leave UGA after a year of building relationships. It is what it is so you may as well enjoy the elbow space on Saturdays in the fall.

This sucks, I believe it's there, I'm one of those Chicago burbs kids who went to GT and I feel for the oldhead Tech people. For what it's worth, legit old-school GT/Atlanta are my favorite people ever and I don't support GT being, like, 50% Chinese kids who just hide in their bedroom. But money talks I guess and their parents pay $80,000 USD for their weird kid to hole up in his bedroom.

 

[Buzz'n]

Sperm count....no joke...it is for real real