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I think part of it is the several decades of mostly feeling like you’ve been kicked in the nuts as a Tech fan. I would guess a lot of USC alums are from SC and stay there after graduation, whereas more of our alums are from elsewhere and more often leave GA after graduating. We’re a smaller school to start and then there’s the fact that there are other things to do in ATL. Also a relatively high percentage of Tech students just aren’t into football. We have to rely on sidewalk fans to make up the difference and they’re much more likely to be uga fans because of the whole winning games thing.
As a teacher at a private school, I have noticed that there are students who will be attending some of the larger state, mostly SEC schools as the third, 4th or 5th generation in their family to go there. They are born knowing where they are going to go to college and some (not all) of these kids have the potential to go to most any school. They have been to the football games at their parents' alma mater since they were infants. They go to football games with their families on weekends. It doesn't matter how good or how bad the team is doing....the FB games are large family social events. Several of these families own homes or property nearby these colleges that is used for football purposes only. These young men and women are somewhat indoctrinated into the cult(ure) of the respective schools.
With that being said, NONE of my GT buddies had family that went their prior. Nor did any of their kids attend GT. My oldest son got accepted and decided it wasn't his cup of tea after touring the campus during orientation. At the time, he was uncertain of his major. This was a kid who grew up attending games at BDS when I lived in Ga. and had season tix. My point is that GT, for whatever reason (difficult admissions and limited majors primarily) doesn't seem to have that kind of attachment and sentimental bond through generations that makes people show up and support schools like USCe, NCSU, Ole Miss, Kentucky, etc.