GTAA financial Issues

[Scubapro]

It was discussed on another thread, but I think it deserves its own.

One of the issues PJ mentioned on the PodCast was the underfunding of the GTAA. This can be fixed but not without some grass roots efforts.


I understand the following assumptions:

The athletic department is $200M in debt

The Institute cannot provide more than 10% of the GTAA’s operating expenses

Roll Call does not contribute any funds to athletics

The Institute does not share donor information with the GTAA

The Institute historically has not aided in GTAA fund raising efforts


Each Football game and Basketball game is nothing more than a commercial for the school. The Institute benefits from this immensely, whether they believe it to be true.

Should the GTAA be supported for this advertising? Yes. Is it? Minimally.

They announced each class raising millions of dollars for Tech on the jumbotron during halftime of homecoming. How much of that went to Athletics? Zero.

I find it curious for Roll Call not to contribute to the GTAA when nothing in its By-Laws prevents it from doing so.

Also, look at the video on Roll Call’s website: https://www.gtalumni.org/s/1481/alumni/19/home.aspx?gid=21&pgid=61

How many of these clips are of sporting events?

Does the Institute tell donors that their money will not be used to help athletics? Nope.

Do they encourage /direct prospective donors to AT? Nope.

Does Tech benefit from a successful Athletic Program? You bet it does.


I would encourage each Tech fan to email and call the head of Roll Call, Dene Sheheane and President Angel Cabrer and let them know what a disservice it is to Georgia Tech not to find creative ways to fund athletics.


Personally, I told Dene and emailed Carea informing them I would not donate a dime to the school until they found a way to support the GTAA

 

[ibeattetris]

I will not stop sharing this link until GTAA has fixed the problem:
https://www.syracuse.com/orangefoot...ollege_football_where_does_syracuse_rank.html

61. Georgia Tech, $17.38 million

Paul Johnson uses the triple-option as a talent equalizer and it helps him deal with a financial inequality as well. Georgia Tech has the second-smallest athletic budget in the country, though it does devote a good chunk of it to football.

The Yellow Jackets have played in bowl games in 19 of the past 20 seasons.

61 of 65 P5 programs and only ahead of Wake in the ACC (as of 2017, I would love to see updated information now that TStan is trying to fix MBob's horrific management of the AD).

I agree with you that the school should do a better job of supporting the athletic program. I used to contribute to roll call and when I found out (on GTSwarm...) that none of the money went to the AD I stopped. GT is supposed to be the "You Can Do That" in and out of the classroom and on or off the field.

 

[Gold1]

It was discussed on another thread, but I think it deserves its own.

One of the issues PJ mentioned on the PodCast was the underfunding of the GTAA. This can be fixed but not without some grass roots efforts.


I understand the following assumptions:

The athletic department is $200M in debt

The Institute cannot provide more than 10% of the GTAA’s operating expenses

Roll Call does not contribute any funds to athletics

The Institute does not share donor information with the GTAA

The Institute historically has not aided in GTAA fund raising efforts


Each Football game and Basketball game is nothing more than a commercial for the school. The Institute benefits from this immensely, whether they believe it to be true.

Should the GTAA be supported for this advertising? Yes. Is it? Minimally.

They announced each class raising millions of dollars for Tech on the jumbotron during halftime of homecoming. How much of that went to Athletics? Zero.

I find it curious for Roll Call not to contribute to the GTAA when nothing in its By-Laws prevents it from doing so.

Also, look at the video on Roll Call’s website: https://www.gtalumni.org/s/1481/alumni/19/home.aspx?gid=21&pgid=61

How many of these clips are of sporting events?

Does the Institute tell donors that their money will not be used to help athletics? Nope.

Do they encourage /direct prospective donors to AT? Nope.

Does Tech benefit from a successful Athletic Program? You bet it does.


I would encourage each Tech fan to email and call the head of Roll Call, Dene Sheheane and President Angel Cabrer and let them know what a disservice it is to Georgia Tech not to find creative ways to fund athletics.


Personally, I told Dene and emailed Carea informing them I would not donate a dime to the school until they found a way to support the GTAA

Done.

 

[Gold1]

It was discussed on another thread, but I think it deserves its own.

One of the issues PJ mentioned on the PodCast was the underfunding of the GTAA. This can be fixed but not without some grass roots efforts.


I understand the following assumptions:

The athletic department is $200M in debt

The Institute cannot provide more than 10% of the GTAA’s operating expenses

Roll Call does not contribute any funds to athletics

The Institute does not share donor information with the GTAA

The Institute historically has not aided in GTAA fund raising efforts


Each Football game and Basketball game is nothing more than a commercial for the school. The Institute benefits from this immensely, whether they believe it to be true.

Should the GTAA be supported for this advertising? Yes. Is it? Minimally.

They announced each class raising millions of dollars for Tech on the jumbotron during halftime of homecoming. How much of that went to Athletics? Zero.

I find it curious for Roll Call not to contribute to the GTAA when nothing in its By-Laws prevents it from doing so.

Also, look at the video on Roll Call’s website: https://www.gtalumni.org/s/1481/alumni/19/home.aspx?gid=21&pgid=61

How many of these clips are of sporting events?

Does the Institute tell donors that their money will not be used to help athletics? Nope.

Do they encourage /direct prospective donors to AT? Nope.

Does Tech benefit from a successful Athletic Program? You bet it does.


I would encourage each Tech fan to email and call the head of Roll Call, Dene Sheheane and President Angel Cabrer and let them know what a disservice it is to Georgia Tech not to find creative ways to fund athletics.


Personally, I told Dene and emailed Carea informing them I would not donate a dime to the school until they found a way to support the GTAA

Need to add a link to their emails tho to make it easier

 

[Deleted member 2897]

I hope this doesn't make anybody mad, but I would encourage people to give more to the GTAA, even at the expense of donations back to the school if necessary. I read somewhere something like 35% of alumni give back to the school, but only 8% give to the GTAA. The school itself doesn't really need the money so much - its elite reputation is there.

I don't give a penny to the school. 100% of what I give goes to the GTAA. I'm not necessarily advocating that, but based on our budgeting here in our house and what I can get away from with the wife thats where every penny we give goes.

We're making progress though, as donations are up a pretty big percentage from previous years, but we need everyone to spread the word.

 

[Scubapro]

Need to add a link to their emails tho to make it easier

[email protected]
The President's email isnt published directly. I tried several variations of his name @gatech.edu. All of them generated a cannot deliver but you can send a message here: https://president.gatech.edu/contact-president .

 

[Scubapro]

I hope this doesn't make anybody mad, but I would encourage people to give more to the GTAA, even at the expense of donations back to the school if necessary. I read somewhere something like 35% of alumni give back to the school, but only 8% give to the GTAA. The school itself doesn't really need the money so much - its elite reputation is there.

I don't give a penny to the school. 100% of what I give goes to the GTAA. I'm not necessarily advocating that, but based on our budgeting here in our house and what I can get away from with the wife thats where every penny we give goes.

We're making progress though, as donations are up a pretty big percentage from previous years, but we need everyone to spread the word.

The Institute has a $2Billion endowment and numerous grants from organizations such as the department of defense. They like to receive donations.
The GTAA needs your donations.

 

[RonJohn]

They announced each class raising millions of dollars for Tech on the jumbotron during halftime of homecoming. How much of that went to Athletics? Zero.

I agree with most of what you posted. However, this item isn't entirely correct. The information I received during my 25th anniversary year, they said that any donations to: Roll Call, The GTAA, AT Fund, the GT Foundation, individual colleges, individual projects, etc. Basically any donation that goes to the school or to athletics is counted in the number that they put on the big screen. I haven't seen them split it up, so there isn't any way to tell how much went to the school or to athletics, but the athletics portion isn't zero.

 

[GTrob21]

It's really unbelievable that a school like GT doesn't see the value of great athletic programs and how "IF" they had nationally prominent programs it would benefit the entire student body. Everything would go up... and the entire Institute would be lifted. Just consider this article https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/sports/ncaa-applicants/

There is a direct correlation when a school wins a national championship, to their admission applications. Its a 3 hour commercial for the school!! For those of you that won't read that article, it shows that when a school wins or appears in a championship game the number of admissions go up, which would in turn allow even higher student profiles, which would in turn be used to secure even more funding.

Everything is elevated. It really is a narrow view to see academics as a sole vertical outside of athletics, and reminds me of the stereo-type "Jock" that is made fun in movies because they can't value the "nerd". Only in our case, we have the exact opposite where we aren't valuing what the "Jock" brings and the result is that we are damn near the bottom in athletic funding.

It us sad to those of us who can see the benefits.

 

[Sebastian GT]

Roll Call does not contribute any funds to athletics

The Institute does not share donor information with the GTAA

The Institute historically has not aided in GTAA fund raising efforts

Until this changes GA Tech athletics will always have issues. The fact that the athletic department gets no support from the school is ridiculous. We have one of the largest endowments in the country. Just think what could be if they just supported the athletic department even in a small way.

 

[ibeattetris]

It's really unbelievable that a school like GT doesn't see the value of great athletic programs and how "IF" they had nationally prominent programs it would benefit the entire student body. Everything would go up... and the entire Institute would be lifted. Just consider this article https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/sports/ncaa-applicants/

There is a direct correlation when a school wins a national championship, to their admission applications. Its a 3 hour commercial for the school!! For those of you that won't read that article, it shows that when a school wins or appears in a championship game the number of admissions go up, which would in turn allow even higher student profiles, which would in turn be used to secure even more funding.

Everything is elevated. It really is a narrow view to see academics as a sole vertical outside of athletics, and reminds me of the stereo-type "Jock" that is made fun in movies because they can't value the "nerd". Only in our case, we have the exact opposite where we aren't valuing what the "Jock" brings and the result is that we are damn near the bottom in athletic funding.

It us sad to those of us who can see the benefits.

I agree with you personally, but does GT Admissions? Does increasing the number of total applicants improve the "quality" of the applicants? The article mentions Auburn who has an acceptance rate of 75% and Oregon who has an acceptance rate of 83%. These schools are taking a large majority of their applicants so any increase in applicants is going to be fine. For GT with an acceptance rate of 23%, I am not sure if that is the case for us (is the the type of student who applies to a school because of the national championship going to be on average better than 1/4 of the overall applicants to GT?).

I still think the exposure is good and better for the school long term irrespective of whether an increase in applicants in the short term is something GT even wants. Part of what GT has historically prided itself on was building well rounded students, and I think athletics should be more strongly emphasized as part of that.

 

[GTrob21]

http://www.econ.appstate.edu/RePEc/pdf/wp1905.pdf ... read this. particularly page 3 where they look at bowl appearances and schools and found

"Additional studies have found that athletics have the tendency to bolster the quality of students that enroll at a university. Smith (2009) discovered that increases in student quality are a function of the sports culture and tradition surrounding a school."

"In a more recent study Segura and Willner (2018), analyzing how Bowl Game invitations affected median SAT scores, found the scores increased at the participating universities. Their study outlined how regular season wins had little effect on admissions, but the advertising effect from a FBS Bowl Game increased total number of applications and median SAT scores by 8-21"

I agree with you personally, but does GT Admissions? Does increasing the number of total applicants improve the "quality" of the applicants? The article mentions Auburn who has an acceptance rate of 75% and Oregon who has an acceptance rate of 83%. These schools are taking a large majority of their applicants so any increase in applicants is going to be fine. For GT with an acceptance rate of 23%, I am not sure if that is the case for us (is the the type of student who applies to a school because of the national championship going to be on average better than 1/4 of the overall applicants to GT?).

I still think the exposure is good and better for the school long term irrespective of whether an increase in applicants in the short term is something GT even wants. Part of what GT has historically prided itself on was building well rounded students, and I think athletics should be more strongly emphasized as part of that.

 

[RonJohn]

It's really unbelievable that a school like GT doesn't see the value of great athletic programs and how "IF" they had nationally prominent programs it would benefit the entire student body. Everything would go up... and the entire Institute would be lifted. Just consider this article https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/sports/ncaa-applicants/

There is a direct correlation when a school wins a national championship, to their admission applications. Its a 3 hour commercial for the school!! For those of you that won't read that article, it shows that when a school wins or appears in a championship game the number of admissions go up, which would in turn allow even higher student profiles, which would in turn be used to secure even more funding.

Everything is elevated. It really is a narrow view to see academics as a sole vertical outside of athletics, and reminds me of the stereo-type "Jock" that is made fun in movies because they can't value the "nerd". Only in our case, we have the exact opposite where we aren't valuing what the "Jock" brings and the result is that we are damn near the bottom in athletic funding.

It us sad to those of us who can see the benefits.

Even that article says that it isn't a proven fact. The article says "The theory isn’t foolproof; sometimes schools experience no significant increase in interest after pivotal sports moments." Also, as @ibeattetris asked, if the acceptance rate is already less than 25%, would an increase in applications actually increase the qualifications of the applicant pool?

Another related claim that people make is that the schools are growing because of athletics in general, and football in particular. I have heard people claim that Alabama has been expanding and building since the mid 2000s and the reason is football. However, if you look at other schools, they have been building also. Money into colleges has been rising greatly. Schools build when they have money. Look at GT. GT has expanded into Midtown. 30 years ago everyone thought that GT was landlocked. Now GT has property in Midtown, leases on brand new office space in Midtown, and lots of new buildings. Did football success drive the GT's ability to expand and build?

I do see value in having sports. I do have the attitude that if you are going to do something, you should strive to do it well. However, I don't see a direct correlation between championship sports and top rated academics. There are too many examples of schools with bad or no athletics at all that are too good at academics to determine that that correlation is accurate.

 

[senoiajacket]

It's really unbelievable that a school like GT doesn't see the value of great athletic programs and how "IF" they had nationally prominent programs it would benefit the entire student body. Everything would go up... and the entire Institute would be lifted. Just consider this article https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/sports/ncaa-applicants/

There is a direct correlation when a school wins a national championship, to their admission applications. Its a 3 hour commercial for the school!! For those of you that won't read that article, it shows that when a school wins or appears in a championship game the number of admissions go up, which would in turn allow even higher student profiles, which would in turn be used to secure even more funding.

Everything is elevated. It really is a narrow view to see academics as a sole vertical outside of athletics, and reminds me of the stereo-type "Jock" that is made fun in movies because they can't value the "nerd". Only in our case, we have the exact opposite where we aren't valuing what the "Jock" brings and the result is that we are damn near the bottom in athletic funding.

It us sad to those of us who can see the benefits.

The article is behind a pay firewall and I am saving the $1 to add to my GTAA contribution (tic). That said, I am not following the logic in GTs case given that (all stats from www.gt.edu and for 2018)
1) We have a 23% overall admit rate with a total of 35,613 applications. I believe this to be just graduates. Of the 8,100 accepted, a little over 3,000 choose to enroll. GT is not lacking for applicants. For reference UGA had 29.300 applicants and admitted, 45% and 5,500 enrolled (2019 stats).
2) The student's that applied had an SAT between 1400-1520 or ACT between 31-34. Probably the students that are considering GT by and large are not going to be influenced by GT playing in the national championship game.

Will playing for a national championship increase the overall visibility of GT? Yes
Will increasing the overall visibility of GT "help" the institute? Yes
How much and how will it help? Unknown.
Will playing for a national championship increase enrollment at GT? No
Will playing for a national championship help GT's academics? No

 

[BainbridgeJacket]

It keeps getting repeated that roll call does not share donor information with GTAA. Is this confirmed? Why don't they?

Seems like something that is either really easy to fix or not something to complain about at all.

 

[Bodidley2]

It is false that the GT Foundation does not share donor lists with the GTAA. I asked that question to the head of the Foundation.
It is true that the Foundation does not provide any funds to the GTAA, This is because the Foundation was formed to support the Academic interests of the Institute and has by- laws in place to prevent transfer of funds to the GTAA or other similar non academic organizations

 

[senoiajacket]

It was discussed on another thread, but I think it deserves its own.

One of the issues PJ mentioned on the PodCast was the underfunding of the GTAA. This can be fixed but not without some grass roots efforts.


I understand the following assumptions:

The athletic department is $200M in debt

The Institute cannot provide more than 10% of the GTAA’s operating expenses

Roll Call does not contribute any funds to athletics

The Institute does not share donor information with the GTAA

The Institute historically has not aided in GTAA fund raising efforts


Each Football game and Basketball game is nothing more than a commercial for the school. The Institute benefits from this immensely, whether they believe it to be true.

Should the GTAA be supported for this advertising? Yes. Is it? Minimally.

They announced each class raising millions of dollars for Tech on the jumbotron during halftime of homecoming. How much of that went to Athletics? Zero.

I find it curious for Roll Call not to contribute to the GTAA when nothing in its By-Laws prevents it from doing so.

Also, look at the video on Roll Call’s website: https://www.gtalumni.org/s/1481/alumni/19/home.aspx?gid=21&pgid=61

How many of these clips are of sporting events?

Does the Institute tell donors that their money will not be used to help athletics? Nope.

Do they encourage /direct prospective donors to AT? Nope.

Does Tech benefit from a successful Athletic Program? You bet it does.


I would encourage each Tech fan to email and call the head of Roll Call, Dene Sheheane and President Angel Cabrer and let them know what a disservice it is to Georgia Tech not to find creative ways to fund athletics.


Personally, I told Dene and emailed Carea informing them I would not donate a dime to the school until they found a way to support the GTAA

It was discussed on another thread, but I think it deserves its own.

Why would Roll Call contribute to the GTAA. I would venture to guess that most individuals who are giving to Roll Call understand that the money is going to academics and also are aware that the GTAA exists and if they want to support athletics they can contribute to the GTAA. I have no beef with Roll Call not sharing $s with the GTAA. About my only beef with the situation is that presumably Roll Call does not share donor information with GTAA.

 

[g0lftime]

It was discussed on another thread, but I think it deserves its own.

One of the issues PJ mentioned on the PodCast was the underfunding of the GTAA. This can be fixed but not without some grass roots efforts.


I understand the following assumptions:

The athletic department is $200M in debt

The Institute cannot provide more than 10% of the GTAA’s operating expenses

Roll Call does not contribute any funds to athletics

The Institute does not share donor information with the GTAA

The Institute historically has not aided in GTAA fund raising efforts


Each Football game and Basketball game is nothing more than a commercial for the school. The Institute benefits from this immensely, whether they believe it to be true.

Should the GTAA be supported for this advertising? Yes. Is it? Minimally.

They announced each class raising millions of dollars for Tech on the jumbotron during halftime of homecoming. How much of that went to Athletics? Zero.

I find it curious for Roll Call not to contribute to the GTAA when nothing in its By-Laws prevents it from doing so.

Also, look at the video on Roll Call’s website: https://www.gtalumni.org/s/1481/alumni/19/home.aspx?gid=21&pgid=61

How many of these clips are of sporting events?

Does the Institute tell donors that their money will not be used to help athletics? Nope.

Do they encourage /direct prospective donors to AT? Nope.

Does Tech benefit from a successful Athletic Program? You bet it does.


I would encourage each Tech fan to email and call the head of Roll Call, Dene Sheheane and President Angel Cabrer and let them know what a disservice it is to Georgia Tech not to find creative ways to fund athletics.


Personally, I told Dene and emailed Carea informing them I would not donate a dime to the school until they found a way to support the GTAA

Not exactly correct. I had my 50th reunion pledge last year. What I pledged for the GTAA was counted in the total . It was a 5 year pledge that included both academic and athletic in the total.

 

[Backstreetbuzz]

I’m also now 100% A/T, 0% Roll Call, as are several of my GT friends.

 

[Scubapro]

I agree with most of what you posted. However, this item isn't entirely correct. The information I received during my 25th anniversary year, they said that any donations to: Roll Call, The GTAA, AT Fund, the GT Foundation, individual colleges, individual projects, etc. Basically any donation that goes to the school or to athletics is counted in the number that they put on the big screen. I haven't seen them split it up, so there isn't any way to tell how much went to the school or to athletics, but the athletics portion isn't zero.

You probably have more information or a more reliable source. I am going off of a conversation I had with a Roll Call official. That conversation prompted me to start this thread.