GT = Oakland A's / Can our program take it to the next level?

[BigJacket]

I recently re-watched the movie Moneyball, about how Billy Beane the GM of the Oakland A's used innovative ways to make his small market team competitive with the Big Boys. In the spirit of the MLB playoffs and College Football going on, I couldn't help but draw comparisons between what the A's have to do and what GT has to do to compete with the mammoths of of our sport.

Similar to the A's in a way- we are a small market team that must figure out unique ways to compete with the Football Factory Schools. I think Stansbury truly gets this and we finally have an AD in place that understands GT for what it is and he's driven to take the football program to new heights.

After reading recent threads of compensation raises for entire football staff and the whole "Harvard/Alabama" thing, it makes me very aware that we have some serious limitations here at GT that make it difficult to be successful on a consistent basis.

My question is can we eliminate some of these limitations and raise our program to the next level or are we forever stuck playing Moneyball and having to figure out unique ways to compete? (i.e. CPJ's option offense)

GT has such a rich tradition and history of being successful in College Football and I hope that we can add many more Championships to our program. I remember being a young teenager at the Citrus Bowl in '90 and right after we won the game, and elderly man stood up and yelled out to the crowd, "Enjoy this, it only happens once in a lifetime!" I remember thinking, what's he talking about?, we will win many more National Championships in my lifetime. I can't help but wonder if that wise old man sitting in our section was truly prophetic....

Just curious what others might think on here about that state of GT's program and the foreseeable future.

Are we stuck playing money ball here at GT?
OR
Can we overcome our limitations and compete with the factory schools and win another Natty?

 

[OldJacketFan]

Interesting comparison. Certainly there are things TS can do to help all the sports programs. But we can forget about opening up most SA friendly majors or the like. The biggest thing I can to help is to aggressively interact with the day to day fan base to get them more involved financially and physically. Start and foster a grass roots program aimed at the sidewalk fans, that is a huge untapped market in the metro area and one that has been consistently ignored. Just a couple of things off the top of my head.

 

[FredJacket]

Georgia Tech football winning it all once in a lifetime is probably about right. I put a lot of stock in "enrollment" correlating to success in college football. When these factory schools like Alabama are cranking out 1.5 - 2.5 times the alumni EACH year... their ability to generate revenue for their football programs simply kills the smaller schools like Ga Tech. In 27 years since we won in 1990, 15 schools have won the national championship.

I did a quick look back at all the National Champs since we did it in 1990. Using 2015 "total enrollment" numbers..by my quick research, the ONLY school smaller than Ga Tech to win a title is (believe or not) Miami. I was actually surprised about this. I always thought Miami was a "big" school. Clemson and Ga Tech are essentially tied in 'enrollment' as the next smallest.

In order for Ga Tech to win it all... so many moons (big and small) must align.

 

[BigJacket]

Georgia Tech football winning it all once in a lifetime is probably about right. I put a lot of stock in "enrollment" correlating to success in college football. When these factory schools like Alabama are cranking out 1.5 - 2.5 times the alumni EACH year... their ability to generate revenue for their football programs simply kills the smaller schools like Ga Tech. In 27 years since we won in 1990, 15 schools have won the national championship.

I did a quick look back at all the National Champs since we did it in 1990. Using 2015 "total enrollment" numbers..by my quick research, the ONLY school smaller than Ga Tech to win a title is (believe or not) Miami. I was actually surprised about this. I always thought Miami was a "big" school. Clemson and Ga Tech are essentially tied in 'enrollment' as the next smallest.

In order for Ga Tech to win it all... so many moons (big and small) must align.

I too have thought about this as being a limitation and have wondered if 1 in 6 GT grads is truly a millionaire then could we overcome the mass alumn #'s from other schools and match their revenues ?

 

[PBR549]

The biggest problem imo is only 45 undergraduate majors at GT if I counted correctly. UM may be smaller by enrollment but they have over 180 undergraduate majors. You want better defense, how about evening the playing field in majors!

 

[Chris Freeman]

I too have thought about this as being a limitation and have wondered if 1 in 6 GT grads is truly a millionaire then could we overcome the mass alumn #'s from other schools and match their revenues ?

Yeah but a GT millionaire is typically a self-made millionaire, meaning they accomplished this not just with a higher than average salary but by investing and being frugal, setting a budget, and living below their means. This formula doesn’t bode well for an athletics department receiving big donations from this group.

 

[BigJacket]

Yeah but a GT millionaire is typically a self-made millionaire, meaning they accomplished this not just with a higher than average salary but by investing and being frugal, setting a budget, and living below their means. This formula doesn’t bode well for an athletics department receiving big donations from this group.

Interesting point

 

[HurricaneJacket]

Play Moneyball.

TS can focus on a few things from a football perspective that can carry over to other sports as well.

1. An IPTAY style program. A while back one of the Tech boards came up with FEM which meant "fifty (or five) every month" which would help fund the AA. Honestly this type of program could be used to fund both the AT Fund and the general fund of the school.

2. A school wide focus on gameday atmosphere. Something like the "white at night" idea where a game starting after 6pm is a whiteout in the stands and a game starting prior to 6pm is a gold out. This can be helped by providing a better selection of white and gold gameday gear.. TS is trying this with the Addidas deal.

3. Focus on bringing in sidewalk fans. Pair with the hill to improve outreach to the metro. To use the cliche, "build a wall" around the metro and aggressively market Tech as a whole. There should be GT's everywhere in the city and we should be seen as the face of the city. If we want to meet the President's goal as being the first place people turn to when facing a problem globally, lets make sure that we are also that place locally.

All three of these can definitely help football, but apply the same things to the all other sports and we can begin to develop a campus wide culture of sports fandom and outreach to make Tech an even more unique animal.

 

[smathis30]

Technically 1 in 16 is a millionaire with assets (how it's counted) so it's impressive but the average college grad usually makes it into a millionaire by retirement. The 1 in 6 is interesting as it shows they become richer quicker. Being the B (or debatable C/D) brand in the state has more to do with revenue woes IMO. Saw a map with most football team likes on Facebook per county and GT was second or third in every county in GA. Not even first in the county it's located in.

 

[takethepoints]

I've long said that we are playing Moneyball and that that's why we hired Coach. And it has worked.

I'm not sure what "the next level" is myself. Is it consistent 10 win seasons? There are very few schools that can get to that level and it usually involves some form of rampant cheating or unethical practices like running players on scholarship off the team. No, thank you. I am actually proud that Tech has done as well as we have without those kinds of shenanigans. Is it winning NCs every decade? Then we are really going to have to change things, probably a la UNC. Again, no thanks.

That said, I know one person at Tech who definitely wants to win an NC and thinks we can: Coach. And I also think, as was mentioned above, that Stansbury knows this. Hurricane's (unfortunate moniker this week, dude) post above strikes me as both doable and is probably in the works. I'm ready to IPTAY any day or the week.

 

[bke1984]

I too have thought about this as being a limitation and have wondered if 1 in 6 GT grads is truly a millionaire then could we overcome the mass alumn #'s from other schools and match their revenues ?

You only need $1,000,000 net worth to be considered a millionaire...and a bunch of that could be tied up in assets (i.e. a house). May not leave a ton of money that can be donated...

 

[HurricaneJacket]

Hurricane's (unfortunate moniker this week, dude)

Moniker has nothing to do with ThugU. Its related to an old martial arts moniker. I really need to put a quote on my posts so that there is no confusion.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

Attracting sidewalk fans.................ok how? The best way is winning big consistently. But we could go 14-0 3 years straight and not attract a large number of sidewalk fans imo.

There are simply too many competitors for entertainment dollars. Most so called potential sidewalk fans have allegiances to other schools. One exception might by local immigrant populations. Most of them have little to no knowledge of or desire to watch college football. We start playing D1 soccer, get Atlanta United to leave town, we might be able to generate some sidewalk soccer fans.

It's just easier said than done. Want more Tech fans?.....have more babies then raise em right.

 

[bke1984]

Attracting sidewalk fans.................ok how? The best way is winning big consistently. But we could go 14-0 3 years straight and not attract a large number of sidewalk fans imo.

There are simply too many competitors for entertainment dollars. Most so called potential sidewalk fans have allegiances to other schools. One exception might by local immigrant populations. Most of them have little to no knowledge of or desire to watch college football. We start playing D1 soccer, get Atlanta United to leave town, we might be able to generate some sidewalk soccer fans.

It's just easier said than done. Want more Tech fans?.....have more babies then raise em right.

We had a ton of sidewalk fans until 1966 when the Falcons and Braves arrived. Bobby Dodd talked about this a bunch...

 

[FredJacket]

I have been going to Ga Tech games since I was a child. The only time I ever lived in Georgia was while a student there in the late 80s. However, my exposure to campus and the gameday experience began with my father/family as a child...with an average of 1-2 roadtrips to Atlanta for game weekends. Ga Tech has ALWAYS felt like home for me.

So.. this actually just struck me reading about attracting sidewalk fans. I liken it (loosely) to churches that don't understand why more people don't visit their church... the answer... most people feel like "outsiders" when visiting a traditional church...it's just not comfortable and the church members don't relate to that properly. Is there something about campus and the gameday experience (location, atmosphere, logistics, etc) that is a 'turnoff' or impediment to attracting sidewalk fans? Something...based on my different experience (its home to me)... that I cannot relate to? Or is it as simple as just too much competition in the ATL... and we're doing the best we can.

The fact that campus is located in "the city" with its layout does make the tailgating pre/post game stuff a little more 'spotty' (my word). When compared to other places I've seen... Notre Dame, NC State, Va Tech... it seems getting in & finding a central place where "the action" is pregame is more difficult at Ga Tech. So.. the total experience may come across more isolated than part of something bigger. Shoot holes in this theory (if that's what it is)... I'm speculating a lot since I rarely get to Atlanta these days. Perhaps I'm way off base.

 

[JorgeJonas]

I've long said that we are playing Moneyball and that that's why we hired Coach. And it has worked.

I'm not sure what "the next level" is myself. Is it consistent 10 win seasons? There are very few schools that can get to that level and it usually involves some form of rampant cheating or unethical practices like running players on scholarship off the team. No, thank you. I am actually proud that Tech has done as well as we have without those kinds of shenanigans. Is it winning NCs every decade? Then we are really going to have to change things, probably a la UNC. Again, no thanks.

That said, I know one person at Tech who definitely wants to win an NC and thinks we can: Coach. And I also think, as was mentioned above, that Stansbury knows this. Hurricane's (unfortunate moniker this week, dude) post above strikes me as both doable and is probably in the works. I'm ready to IPTAY any day or the week.

This is correct.

 

[ramblinwreck1378]

Getting sidewalk fans isn't something that happens at the drop of a hat. Most people are cemented in 'fanhood' at a very early age - a lot of this is dependent on environment, upbringing, relationships, etc. Kids with parents who are dwag fans are probably going to end up being dwags. Same with Tech kids. The opportunity lies in kids that don't have any strong ties to a school as they're growing up. Right now, most of these kids see their friends as dwag fans, or Bama fans, or Clemson fans, so that's what they become, because that's what they're exposed to. Attempting to convert an adult who's a Bama or Florida fan right now is downright impossible and a futile exercise.

How many stories have you heard of kids going to a camp or meeting a famous player and that kid being a fan of that team or player for life? It happens all the time. If Georgia Tech really wants to develop sidewalk fans, the football program needs to get out into the community and become a true presence in metro Atlanta, specifically in the youth community. Attract young kids who then claim Georgia Tech as 'their school'. These kids then grow up to be Tech fans, raise their kids as Tech fans, and success begets success. Not to mention the fact that the kids' love for the school can even bleed over to their parents.

The 'program popularity' card is not in our deck, as has been pointed out. Where we can make our mark is through community contributions and involvement. What Taquon did over our bye week is a huge step in the right direction.

 

[LibertyTurns]

Yeah but a GT millionaire is typically a self-made millionaire, meaning they accomplished this not just with a higher than average salary but by investing and being frugal, setting a budget, and living below their means. This formula doesn’t bode well for an athletics department receiving big donations from this group.

Being a millionaire isn’t what it used to be. And you’re right on the mark about the frugal part.

http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/stanley-millionaire.html

 

[GTFLETCH]

Yes we can.... We need to start a GO Fund GTAA FB Page and let all the fans & Alums get donations up to 20M per year... Until that happens, we will keep blaming everyone else (The Hill, The Coach, The rigorous Classes)

This is on the Fans (Sidewalk & Alums) for the lack of support...

 

[GTFLETCH]

Attracting sidewalk fans.................ok how? The best way is winning big consistently. But we could go 14-0 3 years straight and not attract a large number of sidewalk fans imo..

Not True... IF we go 14-0 3 years straight we would be the next Oregon & or Clemson!!!! I do agree we may not be able to expand the stadium to 80K plus, but the 55K seats will be full...