Fanbase Size

[Vespidae]

When, I became a Tech fan in 1961 you could not beg, borrow or steal a ticket to a Georgia Tech football game. I know that was a different time and a very different Atlanta. But when I see UGA packing in 90,000 at their games, they can't be all alumni. I would bet 50-60,000 are sidewalk fans. Tech can pack BDS, they just need to win and make Tech games a special event like they used to be. Tech needs families, they need young boys to be inspired to play for the Jackets and become engineers and computer scientists and astronauts, and all the things that Tech offers. The NFL is exciting but it's a flash in pan compared to the career opportunities Georgia Tech offers.

Outkick had an interesting article re Alabama's fanbase. They estimated that about 15% of the fanbase actually attended the school; the other 85% root for Alabama because it represents 99% of their self-esteem.

Auburn fans, a distinct minority in the state (just like GT), are really nothing like Alabama fans. That’s because by and large Auburn fans are associated in some way with Auburn. Most of Alabama's students are residents of other states; most of Auburn's are in-state.

The marketing of the two programs is very different. Alabama markets "Winning championships". That IS the Alabama identity and if grew up in a challenging environment, Alabama football was your escape. Auburn, on the other hands, promotes "the Auburn Family" and really works on creating legacy relationships.

UGA to me, is more like Alabama. Lots of fans who have no connection to the school other than it's a tool to build your self-esteem. Tech has not found its identity. It lost it in the rush toward globalization and the success of the research programs, but hasn't really found it's "legacy" messaging. Enlarging a fanbase with no human connection to the Institute (or any sports program, anywhere) is a challenge.

 

[Vespidae]

I don't know how you define significantly. The metro area is ripe with stories of how their 4.0 kid with multiple AP classes, 32 ACT scores, 1300+ SAT scores are not getting into UGA. Yes, Tech is still harder to get into, but the kids getting into UGA are very accomplished kids. No one is saying they are the same. You can hate US News, but the latest ranking has Tech at 43 and UGA at 49. Significant isn't a word i would use to describe the difference.

Jawja is an excellent school and attracts high quality candidates. But it's a completely different school. You really can't compare a technical/research university to a state land grant solely based on SAT scores. The fields of study are dramatically different as are the academic requirements.

 

[jgtengineer]

I don't know how you define significantly. The metro area is ripe with stories of how their 4.0 kid with multiple AP classes, 32 ACT scores, 1300+ SAT scores are not getting into UGA. Yes, Tech is still harder to get into, but the kids getting into UGA are very accomplished kids. No one is saying they are the same. You can hate US News, but the latest ranking has Tech at 43 and UGA at 49. Significant isn't a word i would use to describe the difference.

Us news is trash when it comes to actual rankings and ranks tech much lower than they should due to major limitations they also rate difficulty lower and rate us low for the 300 person lecture hall calc classes. Then turn round and rank all the programs very high

 

[Richard7125]

Us news is trash when it comes to actual rankings and ranks tech much lower than they should due to major limitations they also rate difficulty lower and rate us low for the 300 person lecture hall calc classes. Then turn round and rank all the programs very high

of course it is but few people are going to argue with the schools it lists in the top 10 (or even 20). It's kind of like recruiting rankings. They are trash, but it's interesting how the teams in the Top 10 typically have the best recruiting rankings too.

 

[cpf2001]

UGA having twice as many living alumni is way fewer than I’d expect based on fans and merch around Atlanta. That’s the problem!

Is it trivial to grow GT’s non-alumni fanbase? No. But I think it’s going to be necessary.

 

[GTHomer]

It's been said before but adding varsity soccer teams, perhaps starting with women's, would help to expand the fan base. I'm not sure of the startup costs required for these sports but if done properly, it could help to put a fence around the many talented youth soccer players in the area along with including their families.

 

[bobongo]

It's been said before but adding varsity soccer teams, perhaps starting with women's, would help to expand the fan base. I'm not sure of the startup costs required for these sports but if done properly, it could help to put a fence around the many talented youth soccer players in the area along with including their families.

Not much for soccer myself, but I like this idea.

 

[jgtengineer]

It's been said before but adding varsity soccer teams, perhaps starting with women's, would help to expand the fan base. I'm not sure of the startup costs required for these sports but if done properly, it could help to put a fence around the many talented youth soccer players in the area along with including their families.

Women's college soccer is not going to attract the atlanta united crowd. We need to do it in partnership with them to get butts in the seats.

 

[Richard7125]

Jawja is an excellent school and attracts high quality candidates. But it's a completely different school. You really can't compare a technical/research university to a state land grant solely based on SAT scores. The fields of study are dramatically different as are the academic requirements.

I wasn't comparing the schools based on SAT scores. I was responding to a post saying Tech's standards are significantly higher than UGAs. I listed GPA, SAT, ACT, and APs classes of what it takes to get into UGA these days. Yes, it's still harder to get into Tech, but most people wouldn't say it's significantly higher.

Tech is a really good school. No one is saying it isn't.

 

[Richard7125]

Every person I know that has degrees from both said Tech was much more difficult.

I don't doubt that. Conversely, I would have struggled at schools that focused more on lanuage arts, journalism, history, etc - classes requiring a lot of papers. Tech was easy for me because I'm good at math and everything is black and white. I worked harder on my MBA at Ga State than I did on my undergrad work at Tech.

 

[yeti92]

I don't know how you define significantly. The metro area is ripe with stories of how their 4.0 kid with multiple AP classes, 32 ACT scores, 1300+ SAT scores are not getting into UGA. Yes, Tech is still harder to get into, but the kids getting into UGA are very accomplished kids. No one is saying they are the same. You can hate US News, but the latest ranking has Tech at 43 and UGA at 49. Significant isn't a word i would use to describe the difference.

How would you describe the difference in engineering program rankings? That's primarily what Tech is, seems a more useful rating to compare. Tech is tied at #4 with Cal Tech. UGA is at #104.

 

[MWBATL]

I don't know how you define significantly. The metro area is ripe with stories of how their 4.0 kid with multiple AP classes, 32 ACT scores, 1300+ SAT scores are not getting into UGA. Yes, Tech is still harder to get into, but the kids getting into UGA are very accomplished kids. No one is saying they are the same. You can hate US News, but the latest ranking has Tech at 43 and UGA at 49. Significant isn't a word i would use to describe the difference.

and anecdotal data and stories are not a substitute for actual data. Average SAT score for UGa is 1355. That is BELOW the score for the 25th percentile (LOWEST 25%) of GT students at 1390.

 

[MWBATL]

UGA having twice as many living alumni is way fewer than I’d expect based on fans and merch around Atlanta. That’s the problem!

Is it trivial to grow GT’s non-alumni fanbase? No. But I think it’s going to be necessary.

They have about a 4-1 ratio living in the state of Georgia. A much higher proportion of GT alums live out of state.

 

[slugboy]

I wasn't comparing the schools based on SAT scores. I was responding to a post saying Tech's standards are significantly higher than UGAs. I listed GPA, SAT, ACT, and APs classes of what it takes to get into UGA these days. Yes, it's still harder to get into Tech, but most people wouldn't say it's significantly higher.

Tech is a really good school. No one is saying it isn't.

It can be hard to make apples to apples comparisons here. Compared to 20 or more years ago, SAT scores still tell some of the story, but the SAT and ACT are getting less important for admissions. A 1500 SAT score doesn't get you in, but if you're the kind of student who is going to get in, then you're also likely to have that kind of score.

There are other university rankings other than USNews, even though that's popular in the US. The QS Worldwide University Rankings and the Times Higher Education University Rankings are more academically focused. There's more of a gap between GT and UGA in those rankings.

As for admissions, UGA is really tough to get into from the metro area. As the "state" university, there is something of a quota system across the state. It may not even be explicit, but it's there. The requirements to get in from Coffee or Sumter County are going to be less stringent than from Fulton.

 

[85Escape]

It can be hard to make apples to apples comparisons here. Compared to 20 or more years ago, SAT scores still tell some of the story, but the SAT and ACT are getting less important for admissions. A 1500 SAT score doesn't get you in, but if you're the kind of student who is going to get in, then you're also likely to have that kind of score.

There are other university rankings other than USNews, even though that's popular in the US. The QS Worldwide University Rankings and the Times Higher Education University Rankings are more academically focused. There's more of a gap between GT and UGA in those rankings.

As for admissions, UGA is really tough to get into from the metro area. As the "state" university, there is something of a quota system across the state. It may not even be explicit, but it's there. The requirements to get in from Coffee or Sumter County are going to be less stringent than from Fulton.

It used to be the same thing for GT, at least when I got in. I'm 99% sure I only got in because I was one of two who applied from my county!

 

[cpf2001]

They have about a 4-1 ratio living in the state of Georgia. A much higher proportion of GT alums live out of state.

Seems like an even better reason for Tech to focus its marketing and outreach on non-alum, then. (Gotta lose less too, of course.).

Feels like more like 10:1 in the past few years when I’ve visited (whoops, I’m part of the problem on the west coast!), we have been losing the battle to get non-affiliated people to pay attention for a long time and yeah, the best time to try to fix that would’ve been forty years ago; but the second best time is now!

 

[ibeattetris]

There is also a 3rd part of the fanbase that IMO gets overlooked to a degree. You got the people that went here, and you got the sidewalk fans. The other area you can push into though if you can attract the Family of kids going here.

Maybe Jay Smith isn’t a GT fan, but his daughter Jade Smith just got into Tech and plans to attend. A greater push to include Jade’s parents into a larger GT family both inside and outside of athletics could be way better by the university.

At Penn St, the parents of the student get invited to be a part of the alumni (a lot of times they pay for it after all). They make a big deal about being a part of the family, even if you only supported someone through it.

Tech is not the same. My dad was at a GT function that was benefitting his father in law (who was a Tech grad). My dad had on a GT polo and has supported the Jackets since I attended. A professor came up to him and asked him when he went to Tech. When my dad said he was just the father of a grad and son-in-law of a grad, the professor said "so you're not a Tech man". This is the type of snobbery that I don't really think people realize rubs people the wrong way and is not really conducive to garnering more sidewalk support. I think welcoming supporting parents into the alumni association is the least we could do, and I don't see how it could possibly hurt anything.

 

[85Escape]

At Penn St, the parents of the student get invited to be a part of the alumni (a lot of times they pay for it after all). They make a big deal about being a part of the family, even if you only supported someone through it.

Tech is not the same. My dad was at a GT function that was benefitting his father in law (who was a Tech grad). My dad had on a GT polo and has supported the Jackets since I attended. A professor came up to him and asked him when he went to Tech. When my dad said he was just the father of a grad and son-in-law of a grad, the professor said "so you're not a Tech man". This is the type of snobbery that I don't really think people realize rubs people the wrong way and is not really conducive to garnering more sidewalk support. I think welcoming supporting parents into the alumni association is the least we could do, and I don't see how it could possibly hurt anything.

That's terrible. For what it's worth, if I over-heard that I'd immediately jump in and call the professor down. Let's be honest, most professors are the engineers who didn't have enough social skills to work outside of academia. (No offense @Vespidae !)

 

[g0lftime]

GT is a lot like the military academies in regard to shared experiences. I served in the Navy for 4 years and have no interest in the Naval Academy athletic programs. The academy grads have a shared experience that others cannot really grasp
without having done it. I contend that our athletes have an experience at GT that I cannot totally grasp either. They form a bond within their shared experience.
I'm from the "got out" era when one out of three didn't make it and the Hill could not have cared less. I have a bond with my former classmates and frat brothers who shared the same GT experience at the same time that I did.
I also have a great appreciation for anyone who is a fan of our athletic programs and welcome them to come share game experiences on campus. They are part of that GT family.
There will be more of them when we can build really competitive teams for them to see and be entertained.

 

[Vespidae]

A professor came up to him and asked him when he went to Tech. When my dad said he was just the father of a grad and son-in-law of a grad, the professor said "so you're not a Tech man". This is the type of snobbery that I don't really think people realize rubs people the wrong way and is not really conducive to garnering more sidewalk support.

Different schools have different rules. An “alumnus” is anyone who at least attended the school. At Auburn, I believe it’s one semester. Texas A&M is similar. Tech requires one to have graduated the Institute.

I don’t think it’s snobbery. I agree with your sentiments. Perhaps a “Friend of Tech” …