“Branding” and “Marketing” ...

[Animal02]

I don’t really care if it’s a money loser. The program will be better off overall if we play a full competitive schedule every year. GT would replace your two BS $50 games (Acorn St, etc) with one $75 great game. I’m not even sure there’s a revenue difference. The game would likely be at night and we wouldn’t roast our asses off. Good tv exposure & yes branding.

We can't fill the stadium as it is for big games. The $$$$ loss does not make sense....yet everyone want to better recruiting etc

 

[stech81]

We were at 90% capacity or better at home in 1991 every game but one and that was Wake. And remember we have to give some tickets to the visitors which we can't sell as season tickets.[/QUOTE
But the stadium was only 45,000 at that time

 

[stech81]

I don’t really care if it’s a money loser. The program will be better off overall if we play a full competitive schedule every year. GT would replace your two BS $50 games (Acorn St, etc) with one $75 great game. I’m not even sure there’s a revenue difference. The game would likely be at night and we wouldn’t roast our asses off. Good tv exposure & yes branding.

Look I would love to play teams like Tenn, Auburn. and Alabama but the fact is they won't play us Home and Home they would lose too much money.

 

[iceeater1969]

2020-28 for recruiting / branding to max audiences .

I am good with ucf - central fla; USF- Tampa st pete; u of h houston- H town; TCU - Ft worth Dallas; u Memphis.

 

[jojatk]

Finding those needles on a haystack takes time and $$$$$. Something the higher ups have been reluctant to commit to in the past.

First off I don’t agree they are needles in a haystack. I think there are far more than we’ve been identifying. And we have plenty of majors available that give flexibility to those kids who are truly focused on also earning a good degree. However I do agree that in order to target them we do need to commit more resources. And I believe that CPJ was finally starting to get those resources and hopefully our new staff will benefit from that.

 

[Animal02]

First off I don’t agree they are needles in a haystack. I think there are far more than we’ve been identifying. And we have plenty of majors available that give flexibility to those kids who are truly focused on also earning a good degree. However I do agree that in order to target them we do need to commit more resources. And I believe that CPJ was finally starting to get those resources and hopefully our new staff will benefit from that.

Plenty of majors? What the hell are you smoking? Last time I looked, we had somewhere around 35-40 majors.....ALL STEM, all requiring some sort of calculus. Compare that to a school like Mich State that has about 140 majors, or even Clemp, with Turf Management degrees.
Flexibility? You have to be joking.

 

[HurricaneJacket]

Hahahahaha

View attachment 4895

Gotta raise the money to implement the plan, though.

A Georgia Tech IPTHAY (I Pay Three Hundred A Year) program can achieve it.

Under an IPTHAY fund-raising program, it will only take 1,667 GT non-alumni fans (i.e., sidewalk fans) to achieve this goal on an annual basis.

Tech really needs to implement some version of an iptay program. I like tiered standardized giving that plays with puns. I.e. TECH fund ($2/3/10/20/30/200/300... Each Check)

 

[jojatk]

Plenty of majors? What the hell are you smoking? Last time I looked, we had somewhere around 35-40 majors.....ALL STEM, all requiring some sort of calculus. Compare that to a school like Mich State that has about 140 majors, or even Clemp, with Turf Management degrees.
Flexibility? You have to be joking.

I actually can read AND I do read. I’ve spent time going through our actual catalog of majors and many of them sound REALLY cool. I’ve read the descriptions of many of the courses themselves and many of the different areas of specialization. And many of them have the advantage of being actually valuable in the real world. It seems like you also are not giving us credit for the different areas of emphasis and specialty within some of our majors that aren’t actually different degrees but make two degrees in one thing completely different from one another. And so what if you have to take 2 freaking math classes? Do you have any idea how much help kids can get to pass those TWO classes? I think lots of you hear the word “calculus” and think it’s the hardest thing in the world. I’m no genius and I got through those first two calc classes and they were easier than understanding philosophy.

No we don’t have hundreds of majors. But we have far more to offer than you are giving us credit for. And that’s a shame that you don’t even believe we have as much as we do. I don’t mean that as s criticism of you. I really believe it’s a shame that so many have such a low opinion of the actual diversity we can offer kids. Hopefully our new coaches get that GT is more than people think it is and more than people, even our own people, portray it to be.

We’re also not trying to get the kids who want to major in Turf Management. If we are then we are wasting our time. We want the kids who are athletic AND want to get a great degree. And they exist in larger numbers than I think you believe. There are tons of them playing for other schools and we do need more resources to get to them.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

There are tons of them playing for other schools and we do need more resources to get to them.

BINGO !!!

 

[Animal02]

I actually can read AND I do read. I’ve spent time going through our actual catalog of majors and many of them sound REALLY cool. I’ve read the descriptions of many of the courses themselves and many of the different areas of specialization. And many of them have the advantage of being actually valuable in the real world. It seems like you also are not giving us credit for the different areas of emphasis and specialty within some of our majors that aren’t actually different degrees but make two degrees in one thing completely different from one another. And so what if you have to take 2 freaking math classes? Do you have any idea how much help kids can get to pass those TWO classes? I think lots of you hear the word “calculus” and think it’s the hardest thing in the world. I’m no genius and I got through those first two calc classes and they were easier than understanding philosophy.

No we don’t have hundreds of majors. But we have far more to offer than you are giving us credit for. And that’s a shame that you don’t even believe we have as much as we do. I don’t mean that as s criticism of you. I really believe it’s a shame that so many have such a low opinion of the actual diversity we can offer kids. Hopefully our new coaches get that GT is more than people think it is and more than people, even our own people, portray it to be.

We’re also not trying to get the kids who want to major in Turf Management. If we are then we are wasting our time. We want the kids who are athletic AND want to get a great degree. And they exist in larger numbers than I think you believe. There are tons of them playing for other schools and we do need more resources to get to them.

1) You need a D1 level player
2) You need that player to be academically eligible to get admitted
3) They have to desire a major offered by Tech
4) They have to have the drive to stay academically eligible at Tech.
If you think those candidates are plentiful, you are delusional.

You post like you are the only one that took calculus...been there done that. I also attended another University after escaping Tech with a degree, and know first hand how vastly different the academic requirements are at Tech vs elsewhere.

 

[GTG768B]

this go here?

He missed a golden opportunity to make the G stand for "Great" and make a recursive acronym

 

[RonJohn]

He missed a golden opportunity to make the G stand for "Great" and make a recursive acronym

But Waffle House.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

I’d rather have a stadium filling big time game than be 60% full so we can kick Acorn St’s butt.

But those games are only half filled with Tech fans. Just saying. Big OOC games are awesome...when you win.

I’d prefer to see Tenn, Aub, etc instead of USF / Temple. But keep a FCS game as warmup to start the year.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

He missed a golden opportunity to make the G stand for "Great" and make a recursive acronym

He was eating grits at Waffle House at the time...stuck in his head.

@RonJohn beat me to the punch

 

[RonJohn]

I’d prefer to see Tenn, Aub, etc instead of USF / Temple. But keep a FCS game as warmup to start the year.

Weren't the USF and UCF series scheduled when the Alabama and Auburn home-and-away series were cancelled due to potential scheduling conflicts from plans for the ACC, then the SEC to schedule 9 conference games? It isn't as if we didn't try to schedule P5 teams, it is just extremely hard to schedule home-and-away with P5 teams, simply because of logistics.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

I actually can read AND I do read. I’ve spent time going through our actual catalog of majors and many of them sound REALLY cool. I’ve read the descriptions of many of the courses themselves and many of the different areas of specialization. And many of them have the advantage of being actually valuable in the real world. It seems like you also are not giving us credit for the different areas of emphasis and specialty within some of our majors that aren’t actually different degrees but make two degrees in one thing completely different from one another. And so what if you have to take 2 freaking math classes? Do you have any idea how much help kids can get to pass those TWO classes? I think lots of you hear the word “calculus” and think it’s the hardest thing in the world. I’m no genius and I got through those first two calc classes and they were easier than understanding philosophy.

No we don’t have hundreds of majors. But we have far more to offer than you are giving us credit for. And that’s a shame that you don’t even believe we have as much as we do. I don’t mean that as s criticism of you. I really believe it’s a shame that so many have such a low opinion of the actual diversity we can offer kids. Hopefully our new coaches get that GT is more than people think it is and more than people, even our own people, portray it to be.

We’re also not trying to get the kids who want to major in Turf Management. If we are then we are wasting our time. We want the kids who are athletic AND want to get a great degree. And they exist in larger numbers than I think you believe. There are tons of them playing for other schools and we do need more resources to get to them.

Go talk to 50 random high school football players and discuss our degrees with them. Then get back to us on how many feel the same as you about those degrees and classes.

I think your eyes will be opened.

 

[GTRambler]

I actually can read AND I do read. I’ve spent time going through our actual catalog of majors and many of them sound REALLY cool. I’ve read the descriptions of many of the courses themselves and many of the different areas of specialization. And many of them have the advantage of being actually valuable in the real world. It seems like you also are not giving us credit for the different areas of emphasis and specialty within some of our majors that aren’t actually different degrees but make two degrees in one thing completely different from one another. And so what if you have to take 2 freaking math classes? Do you have any idea how much help kids can get to pass those TWO classes? I think lots of you hear the word “calculus” and think it’s the hardest thing in the world. I’m no genius and I got through those first two calc classes and they were easier than understanding philosophy.

No we don’t have hundreds of majors. But we have far more to offer than you are giving us credit for. And that’s a shame that you don’t even believe we have as much as we do. I don’t mean that as s criticism of you. I really believe it’s a shame that so many have such a low opinion of the actual diversity we can offer kids. Hopefully our new coaches get that GT is more than people think it is and more than people, even our own people, portray it to be.

We’re also not trying to get the kids who want to major in Turf Management. If we are then we are wasting our time. We want the kids who are athletic AND want to get a great degree. And they exist in larger numbers than I think you believe. There are tons of them playing for other schools and we do need more resources to get to them.

Jojakt is absolutely correct.

This is a strength for Georgia Tech, and it needs to be a major focus of its pitch to prospective high school football recruits. I believe this focus on academics has been emphasized in GT’s recruiting efforts for many years in the past, including the last 11 under CPJ’s tenure.

What has been missing, however, is a much greater commitment in money and staff to strengthen these recruiting efforts, and actually make these efforts on a nationwide rather than a limited regional scope.

This is why I proposed, in my earlier Goals, Objectives and Strategies post, a major fund-raising program to hire at least 10 additional high school football “talent scouts” and spread them out regionally throughout the nation, and then maintain this nationwide 10-scout recruiting staff annually thereafter. With these additional resources (funding and staffing), the GT football program would be able to sign a greater number of high-caliber student-athletes to football scholarships.

Sadly, the majority of the posters within this thread did not seem to be seriously interested in my suggestion. Most of the respondents went off on unrelated tangents.

 

[RonJohn]

Sadly, the majority of the posters within this thread did not seem to be seriously interested in my suggestion. Most of the respondents went off on unrelated tangents.

You started this thread about "“Branding” and “Marketing” ..." in general, so people discussing branding and marketing aren't going off in unrelated tangents to the thread. You could start a thread about raising money for recruiting staff, but even then in most threads people do go off in unrelated tangents.

You might have missed the fund raising effort at this time last year for the exact purpose you are proposing. Money was raised to double the recruiting staff for two years.(From 4 to 8) You might have also missed that GTAA is in a 3 year $125 million fund raising effort: http://gtathl.com/2020/ That initiative started in 2018. It lists purposes for the money and the goal for each of those purposes. The website shows the progress at $48 million of the $125 million goal. However, the last I heard was something like $52 million raised. My ticket rep reached out to me shortly after the initiative was announced to discuss it with me and solicit donations. It will be difficult at this point to start a different fundraising activity for recruiting staff because: They just finished one. They are in the middle of a larger general fundraising activity.

The previous AD didn't seem to have any direction or purpose. TStan has shown both. He has public information about the goals of the GTAA. I am sure that internally they have more detailed documentation similar to what you are suggesting about goals, objectives, and strategies.

 

[GTRambler]

Thank you, RonJohn. I was not aware that the $125 million fund-raising program included money for hiring additional recruiting staff. I thought it was primarily for the replacement of the current Edge athletic building.

Yes, you are correct in that I started this thread with the title “Branding and Marketing.” If I wanted to solicit more comments and feedback on raising funds for a greater nationwide recruiting program, I should have started it under the proper title.

Thanks again very much, for your reply. It was informative, corrective, and enlightening.

 

[GTRambler]

RonJohn, I just re-read your reply, and you mention that money was raised (separately from the current $125 million fund-raising effort) for additional recruiting staff from 4 to 8, for only two years.

How much money was raised in total for this two-year expansion of the recruiting staff?