Conference Realignment

[bobongo]

Frustrates the he!! out of me that GT fans think our programs are so destitute that we'd be doormats in any conference not named the ACC. Gonna hurt some feelings here, but the first 3 CGC years are an aberration for modern GT football, not the norm. Since 1990, when has GT EVER had 3 straight losing seasons? NEVER. We definitely have not had 3 straight seasons of 3 wins.

The norm for GT football, until the past 3 years, has been consistent bowl games, winning 6-8 games with a special 9-11 win season every 4-5 years. ACC championship appearances at least once every 4-5 years.

As bad as we've been the last 3 seasons, our composite talent rankings were top 5 in the ACC according to 247. Our coaches have squandered that.

People who keep pointing out that Ohio State has a 150 million budget or 'Bama and Georgia have donations that dwarf ours. SO WHAT? Those are NOT the teams we would compete against anyways...and even then, we have beaten teams like that. We beat Clemson in 2014 in the midst of their dynasty run. We beat UGA enough times under CPJ and George O'Leary. We beat a national championship caliber Auburn under Gailey. 'Bama didn't even want to play us and pulled out of a home and home. There are plenty of wins since our national championship year that we shouldn't have won but we did. We did all of it while always have a modest athletic budget...a budget made worse by stupid contracts and business decisions.

GT can, and should, be able to compete and win against the Illinois/Purdue/Mich State/Northwestern/Penn State/Maryland/Rutgers/Indiana/Minnesota/Nebraska/Wisconsin type teams. GT should even be able to beat Michigan every now and again. Ohio State may be the toughest challenge due to their outsized athletic resources, but GT in a special year has every right to be hopeful (anyone want to see CPJ's 2014 team take on OSU?!). This isn't about beating Ohio State/Clemson/Bama/UGA every year...that hasn't been our tier of competition since Dodd took us out of the SEC. This is about getting 6-8 wins, going to bowls, and having a special season every 4-5 years....things that were regularly done until this coaching staff came here.

Most of the time GT fans blame our revenue for our problems. I'm starting to believe we need to blame ourselves and our attitudes. Maybe our donations and attendance would be better if our fans had a glass half full attitude instead of all this negativity and self doubt. Too many of us ignore that GT has been a heck of a good to pretty good program until recently.

Well said. The bar's been lowered so far in the last three dismal years that we've forgotten where it used to be.

 

[UgaBlows]

Frustrates the he!! out of me that GT fans think our programs are so destitute that we'd be doormats in any conference not named the ACC. Gonna hurt some feelings here, but the first 3 CGC years are an aberration for modern GT football, not the norm. Since 1990, when has GT EVER had 3 straight losing seasons? NEVER. We definitely have not had 3 straight seasons of 3 wins.

The norm for GT football, until the past 3 years, has been consistent bowl games, winning 6-8 games with a special 9-11 win season every 4-5 years. ACC championship appearances at least once every 4-5 years.

As bad as we've been the last 3 seasons, our composite talent rankings were top 5 in the ACC according to 247. Our coaches have squandered that.

People who keep pointing out that Ohio State has a 150 million budget or 'Bama and Georgia have donations that dwarf ours. SO WHAT? Those are NOT the teams we would compete against anyways...and even then, we have beaten teams like that. We beat Clemson in 2014 in the midst of their dynasty run. We beat UGA enough times under CPJ and George O'Leary. We beat a national championship caliber Auburn under Gailey. 'Bama didn't even want to play us and pulled out of a home and home. There are plenty of wins since our national championship year that we shouldn't have won but we did. We did all of it while always have a modest athletic budget...a budget made worse by stupid contracts and business decisions.

GT can, and should, be able to compete and win against the Illinois/Purdue/Mich State/Northwestern/Penn State/Maryland/Rutgers/Indiana/Minnesota/Nebraska/Wisconsin type teams. GT should even be able to beat Michigan every now and again. Ohio State may be the toughest challenge due to their outsized athletic resources, but GT in a special year has every right to be hopeful (anyone want to see CPJ's 2014 team take on OSU?!). This isn't about beating Ohio State/Clemson/Bama/UGA every year...that hasn't been our tier of competition since Dodd took us out of the SEC. This is about getting 6-8 wins, going to bowls, and having a special season every 4-5 years....things that were regularly done until this coaching staff came here.

Most of the time GT fans blame our revenue for our problems. I'm starting to believe we need to blame ourselves and our attitudes. Maybe our donations and attendance would be better if our fans had a glass half full attitude instead of all this negativity and self doubt. Too many of us ignore that GT has been a heck of a good to pretty good program until recently.

The NIL deal is really the main thing that scares me about our future, I am holding out hope that sooner than later there will be legislation to help regulate this disaster or a new regulating commission will take over for the NCAA that has some teeth to bring it under control. I just don’t see how we are going to get the talent we need to compete and more importantly KEEP our talent we develop under the current NIL/transfer system.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Of course I would love to see the Badgers.......Mrs. Wisconsin's alma mater.......then PSU, Iowa, Minnesota.....rest are ho-hum for me.

When I think of playing the B1G there are several teams that interest me for different reasons. Ohio State, of course. Michigan with the biggest stadium in football. All the teams you mentioned. Nebraska because of their unique history and fan base. Rutgers because “they invented football” and I spent some of my youth in New Jersey. Purdue because we need to get even with them. Michigan State because we have had rivalries with them in the past. Northwestern because they are the Stanford of the Midwest and the Ga Tech of the North, kind of, sort of.

I frankly never got into the North Carolina schools for football and I’ve tried for years. Virginia Tech always annoyed me. I’m ready to renew some old rivalries and get some fresh ones.

 

[Techster]

The NIL deal is really the main thing that scares me about our future, I am holding out hope that sooner than later there will be legislation to help regulate this disaster or a new regulating commission will take over for the NCAA that has some teeth to bring it under control. I just don’t see how we are going to get the talent we need to compete and more importantly KEEP our talent we develop under the current NIL/transfer system.

I think GT needs to find a way to be creative. Other schools have. We're in Atlanta and there are a lot of fortune 500 companies here, and a LOT of small and medium sized businesses. How do we leverage that into NIL deals that make sense for the companies and the SAs? How can we help our SAs with social media presence that create NIL deals? Maybe we hire an in house social media/NIL CEO to head all of that.

Also, it goes back to popularity. When we start winning again, our SAs will start to see NIL opportunities.

 

[Sheboygan]

Pac-12 and ACC conference realignment chessboard: The roadmap for every school

Get a mixture of predictions on where #Pac12 and #ACC teams will ultimately land, and assessments of how good or bad various outcomes would be.

trojanswire.usatoday.com

Interesting- lengthy- article.........GT next to last in the article, though.

 

[Techster]

Pac-12 and ACC conference realignment chessboard: The roadmap for every school

Get a mixture of predictions on where #Pac12 and #ACC teams will ultimately land, and assessments of how good or bad various outcomes would be.

trojanswire.usatoday.com

Interesting- lengthy- article.........GT next to last in the article, though.

Everyone has an opinion on this topic right now. Best thing to do is look at the data and how it makes business sense for the B1G or SEC...NOT what someone else believes.

 

[Oakland]

Just my opinion, we wouldn't be poor mouthing ourselves so much if we'd hired a better football staff in 2019 and won football games. We're just low right now and really should be better. The last few years have not been Georgia Tech, it's been Mistake Tech. That is on the leadership. Georgia Tech could be a great fit for the Big Ten, but I believe the ACC will survive.

 

[Sheboygan]

Everyone has an opinion on this topic right now. Best thing to do is look at the data and how it makes business sense for the B1G or SEC...NOT what someone else believes.

What are boards like this for then ??

 

[Techster]

What are boards like this for then ??

LOL...very true.

 

[iopjacket]

Pac-12 and ACC conference realignment chessboard: The roadmap for every school

Get a mixture of predictions on where #Pac12 and #ACC teams will ultimately land, and assessments of how good or bad various outcomes would be.

trojanswire.usatoday.com

Interesting- lengthy- article.........GT next to last in the article, though.

Good read. It was focused more on the PAC-12 and a possible joint TV deal with the ACC which might save both conferences. There was a good, but grim discussion of the likely hood of teams leaving the PAC-12 and ACC. Our best hope of a safe landing was the BIG 10 but the poor financial state our Athletic Department was hurting our cause.

 

[RonJohn]

Pac-12 and ACC conference realignment chessboard: The roadmap for every school

Get a mixture of predictions on where #Pac12 and #ACC teams will ultimately land, and assessments of how good or bad various outcomes would be.

trojanswire.usatoday.com

Interesting- lengthy- article.........GT next to last in the article, though.

He is extremely confusing. He doesn't believe that the Big10 would add GT because it is too far South, but believes that FSU and Miami might end up in the Big10 together. It reads a lot like typical fan sports bar drivel where the logical reasoning changes to match an opinion. Even to the point of reversing the logic between two talking points.

 

[DuckGT]

Hope we’re not going to get left out in the cold.

 

[WreckinGT]

Hope we’re not going to get left out in the cold.

Not gonna lie. Im kinda skeptical about major football related news being broken by a swimming news website.

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

I cannot disagree with anything in this post. However, it has just about convinced me to abandon GT entirely, as they seem frankly to be perfectly willing to abandon us sports fans. If your representation of the administration is accurate, then GT be da&&ed...let them join the Ivy league and to hades with them. The academic side chose to honor Fauci which imho was an egregious thing to do (we're all entitled to our opinions, and I know there are many ones on this message board) but that indicated to me how far apart I am from the academic powers-that-be at GT. So if they don't give a hoot about me why should I give a hoot (or any money) to them?

I accepted years ago that GT does not care about me either as an alum or a fan. You gotta accept it and decide how you want to spend your money. I have a kid at GT now. He has figured out in year 1 that GT doesn’t care about him as a student either. It’s a business. He says GT students of today are basically self or group taught because either the professor rants about things in class and tests on items not on the syllabus or in the book or they can’t understand the professor at all due to accents. I was fairly not happy when he told me but he said he and the other students figure it out somehow. Also, the incredible grade inflation keeps everyone who at least shows up the grades to keep Hope or Zell.

 

[billga99]

Hope we’re not going to get left out in the cold.

And exactly how is ESPN going to walk away from a contract? They have very little ability to do that unless ACC teams leave on their own (ie reduce the number of teams and change the dynamics). Teams leaving on their own have payout exit fees and forfeit 14 years of TV revenue. Talking 200MM plus and likely far more considering opinions on what SEC or Big Ten TV will get in future years. Of course, ESPN or Fox could agree to fund a school(s) athletic fund the amount they are losing in TV revenue. But that is a big number and I don't see it happening.

 

[SOWEGA Jacket]

Hope we’re not going to get left out in the cold.

This would be awesome if ESPN causes the contract to change and opens the path for us to go to the BIG.

 

[IronJacket7]

We are way past the beginning of our end. In case you haven’t noticed we’ve finished ranked 3 times in the past 20 years. Once in the past 12 years. We are an afterthought in college football. We have done less with more than any school I can think of. We are in one of, if not the top, hot bed of high school football and we are Purdue. At least their excuse is they are in the middle of nowhere with little high school football. The BIG is our life boat to at least have a chance in the future. The ACC is dying because of lack of leadership like GT athletics. The BIG is our only hope otherwise we continue the descent to bottom tier status.

I don't see the B1G as our "life boat." But if a conference were that for us I would say it is the SEC. The B1G makes no since geographically in the long term. You are thinking short term and only in the context of money and popularity. That B1G splash would last 5 years tops. Don't be deceived by the flashy.

 

[iopjacket]

He is extremely confusing. He doesn't believe that the Big10 would add GT because it is too far South, but believes that FSU and Miami might end up in the Big10 together. It reads a lot like typical fan sports bar drivel where the logical reasoning changes to match an opinion. Even to the point of reversing the logic between two talking points.

You are reading comments by two different people. The upper comments are by Jeffrey Fann who follows the ACC and the bottom comments are by Matt Wadleigh who wrote the article which is mostly about PAC-12, but as several have said it is all opinions.

 

[stech81]

Hope we’re not going to get left out in the cold.

As hot as it is here I would like to be in the cold.

 

[Techster]

Hope we’re not going to get left out in the cold.

I have my doubts, but this would be a HUGE chess play by the SEC to get UNC and UVA. They were key schools, along with GT, for the B1G's southern expansion years ago. So now does the B1G write off the South altogether (and no GT to B1G)? Miami covets the B1G over the SEC, but is GT and Miami enough...and is Miami even desired by the B1G even though market and B1G alum base meets their criteria?

Clemson and FSU have been rumored to the SEC for a long time now, so no surprise there.