If you are asking WHY

[Vespidae]

At GT, the school pays more but the fans are pathetic.

Tech’s fans are not pathetic. If you look at other schools, many have invested in the organizations needed to raise money. Whether it’s local boosters, or organized programs, there is a development office soliciting funds. Tech has no such equivalent.

Moreover, it has been the strategy of the AA to rely on 5-10 mega donors for funds. That is hardly the fault of the average Tech fan.

 

[herb]

Tech’s fans are not pathetic. If you look at other schools, many have invested in the organizations needed to raise money. Whether it’s local boosters, or organized programs, there is a development office soliciting funds. Tech has no such equivalent.

Moreover, it has been the strategy of the AA to rely on 5-10 mega donors for funds. That is hardly the fault of the average Tech fan.

When the request went out for additional money this year (last year?) for recruiting it was raised in a very short time. There has not been a push to engage the general fan base. Now maybe the fans should be so invested to just give money without asking, but the infrastructure, request and will by the AD has been sorely lacking as well. With the exception of courting the 5-10 mentioned above. Paying a little attention to the average person has been severely lacking at the AD and at Tech in general for a long time

 

[slugboy]

The GTAA operates the athletics program and is separate and distinct from the school.

To add on, over the last couple of years, questions come up asking why the academic side of GT doesn’t fund the GTAA.
The school does give to the state 10% maximum. It would be challenging to give more even without that limit, since there are strings attached to a lot of our funds. We can’t take funds from a next generation radar contract at GTRI and use them to fund our basketball team; the contracts say explicitly what the grants are for. Some people got fired recently for spending grant money on morale events. The specific designations are also going to be the case with other funds. You’d have to raise the student athletic fees that students pay to get more than the 10% we get now.
For the most part, the money for athletics needs to be raised for athletics—either through ticket sales, or broadcast rights, or other rights (programs, jerseys), or fundraising (AT fund).
We’ve been middle of the pack in attendance. There are some other ways we haven’t been as strong in revenue. I’m sure others can explain it better than I can.


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[RonJohn]

Tech’s fans are not pathetic. If you look at other schools, many have invested in the organizations needed to raise money. Whether it’s local boosters, or organized programs, there is a development office soliciting funds. Tech has no such equivalent.

Moreover, it has been the strategy of the AA to rely on 5-10 mega donors for funds. That is hardly the fault of the average Tech fan.

I do agree that the GT Athletic Association needs something akin to IPTAY. TStan has given a vision of what money is used for and had raised a large amount for AI2020 by explaining that vision.

However, when a large donor announced matching funds for the recruiting staff initiative, the $300-$400k was donated by only 320 people. "Fans" beg for different apparel, but when it is available they complain about shade of color, or location of logo, or that the buttons on th polo aren't to their liking. Or they complain that the apparel is too expensive. I have seen posts on this forum staying that the poster shouldn't need to donate because a QB from the 80s has so much money he should fund athletics by himself. Last year I counted the number of people listed in the football program as donating at the Alexander level or higher, and it was less than 1,000. That means fewer than 1,000 people donated $500 or more.

The majority of "fans" don't buy season tickets and don't donate money. The same fans who don't provide any financial support to GT Athletics wand better coaches, better recruiting, and better results. They just want someone else to pay for it. So I stick by my statement.

 

[BleedGoldNWhite21]

Bottom line is it was way to easy for Coach Blank and Blank University to talk down on Techs offense and that hurt recruiting more then most want to admit. 75% of D1 players are ones that want to play in the NFL. Take away that group, plus Techs standards, no money, made recruiting a nightmare for CPJ staff.

Sure, I agree elite offensive players didn’t want to play in our offense, but like I said, the stats kinda prove we didn’t need better recruits on the offensive side(it would have been nice, of course). Hell last year’s offense averaged THIRTY THREE points a game and I don’t think any of us would put that team against CPJ’s best. The offense did more than enough to win consistently every year. The defense was awful. Running the triple didn’t affect defensive recruiting. More recruiting resources may have helped the defensive side of the ball. It might not have, either. We don’t know. And hell, if we did get better defensive results along with CPJ’s consistent offense and started averaging around 10 wins a season, maybe it becomes easier to recruit on the offensive side, too. People like to play for a winner. It doesn’t matter though, it’s the past now, anyways.

Hopefully CGC gets more resources at his disposal than previous coaches.

 

[Vespidae]

I do agree that the GT Athletic Association needs something akin to IPTAY. TStan has given a vision of what money is used for and had raised a large amount for AI2020 by explaining that vision.

However, when a large donor announced matching funds for the recruiting staff initiative, the $300-$400k was donated by only 320 people. "Fans" beg for different apparel, but when it is available they complain about shade of color, or location of logo, or that the buttons on th polo aren't to their liking. Or they complain that the apparel is too expensive. I have seen posts on this forum staying that the poster shouldn't need to donate because a QB from the 80s has so much money he should fund athletics by himself. Last year I counted the number of people listed in the football program as donating at the Alexander level or higher, and it was less than 1,000. That means fewer than 1,000 people donated $500 or more.

The majority of "fans" don't buy season tickets and don't donate money. The same fans who don't provide any financial support to GT Athletics wand better coaches, better recruiting, and better results. They just want someone else to pay for it. So I stick by my statement.

I’m not sure of your approach. Donations made as part of the 22,000 season ticket purchases arent listed in the program.

As to percent of fans who donate, that argument could apply to almost any school.

Regardless, I think its less about fans being pathetic than the AA having built a model that excludes most of them.

 

[White_Gold]

Which pisses me off when posters with a narrative to drive say CPJ did not care about and or was a poor recruiter

CPJ was a horrible recruiter my man. It's not a narrative. It's the truth.

 

[slugboy]

I do agree that the GT Athletic Association needs something akin to IPTAY. TStan has given a vision of what money is used for and had raised a large amount for AI2020 by explaining that vision.

However, when a large donor announced matching funds for the recruiting staff initiative, the $300-$400k was donated by only 320 people.

The recruiting staff initiative had a target amount. When you do that kind of fundraising, the donations can tail off shortly after you hit the goal. The fact we did it with 320 people might signify that we don’t need all that many people to hit a goal like that.

Undesignated money is so useful to an org like the AA though, and that’s why I’d also think the AT fund should be more like what IPTAY started as. Students don’t usually have a ton of money, but make it easy for a student to give $5 or $10 and get an AT decal for your car and you’ve made it easy to give. New grads are often the same way. Do you want someone’s first donation to be 5 or 10 years after graduation?

I guess people are worried that if you make it easy to give $10 that people won’t give $100, but I think getting people to give the first $1 is the hardest step.




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[7979]

"....make it easy for a student to give $5 or $10 and get an AT decal for your car and you’ve made it easy to give. New grads are often the same way. Do you want someone’s first donation to be 5 or 10 years after graduation?...."
THIS!

 

[GTBatGirl96]

Undesignated money is so useful to an org like the AA though, and that’s why I’d also think the AT fund should be more like what IPTAY started as. Students don’t usually have a ton of money, but make it easy for a student to give $5 or $10 and get an AT decal for your car and you’ve made it easy to give. New grads are often the same way. Do you want someone’s first donation to be 5 or 10 years after graduation?

I guess people are worried that if you make it easy to give $10 that people won’t give $100, but I think getting people to give the first $1 is the hardest step.

Another issue that other grads may share is that I was not aware that Roll Call does NOT contribute anything towards athletics. In fact, I think I picked up on that when I first started visiting this board, which would have been almost 20 years after graduation.

 

[33jacket]

To add on, over the last couple of years, questions come up asking why the academic side of GT doesn’t fund the GTAA.
The school does give to the state 10% maximum. It would be challenging to give more even without that limit, since there are strings attached to a lot of our funds. We can’t take funds from a next generation radar contract at GTRI and use them to fund our basketball team; the contracts say explicitly what the grants are for. Some people got fired recently for spending grant money on morale events. The specific designations are also going to be the case with other funds. You’d have to raise the student athletic fees that students pay to get more than the 10% we get now.
For the most part, the money for athletics needs to be raised for athletics—either through ticket sales, or broadcast rights, or other rights (programs, jerseys), or fundraising (AT fund).
We’ve been middle of the pack in attendance. There are some other ways we haven’t been as strong in revenue. I’m sure others can explain it better than I can.


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Thats a specific reach for a donation and you are not correct for gts general fund. Many schools who have a general donation fund, like roll call, explicitly say the money is used for academic scholarships, academic support, and athletic support. Gts does not. That is why its called “unrestricted” donation which is what roll call is. Its up to the discretion of the organization how its spent. We decided to split the two efforts up and not share even phone call lists. Do u know when i was on the AA board many of our donors who donated to roll call thought it helped athletics too. They didn’t realize it does not.

Bottom line is the school can do more to help and chooses not to. And it goes so far to as even block the AA from soliciting from the same donors. I know. Because i lived it.

Our roll call funding is huge.

You are talking about grants. Not the same. Nor is a specific fund raising directive which would then be restricted.

 

[stech81]

CPJ was a horrible recruiter my man. It's not a narrative. It's the truth.

Old fashion maybe seemed to many like he didn't care wasn't going to beg a player to come. More, like here is what you can do if you finish at Tech. If I was to rate him on recruiting form 1-10 10 being the best I would say 3 .

 

[Scubapro]

Same flawed arguments that ignore the correlation of funding and recruiting as well as the claim that recruiting cures all ills. He needs more than time and patience to succeed, and at this point he does not appear to have the other assets. THAT is what these other "fans" do understand.

Well, as Bobby Bowden said.
Getting a team full of four and five star recruits doesn't guarantee a championship but not getting them guarantees not winning a championship.
We constantly punched above our weight in the past but we have been left behind in the latest recruiting arms race.

 

[Vespidae]

Old fashion maybe seemed to many like he didn't care wasn't going to beg a player to come. More, like here is what you can do if you finish at Tech. If I was to rate him on recruiting form 1-10 10 being the best I would say 3 .

FBS schools sign about 2,500 players every year, and maybe 30 5* players a year. That means a bit more that 1 percent are five stars. The low percentage play is to go after 5 stars … a better way, and the way TStan is doing it, is to go after 3 stars and develop them up. That's why Collins got a 7 year contract.

 

[RonJohn]

I’m not sure of your approach. Donations made as part of the 22,000 season ticket purchases arent listed in the program.

I didn't include the "donations" for season tickets because they are not really "donations". The base price for all tickets,(except in the very top of the Upper North) are the same price.(I think there is about a $25 difference in some areas this year). The difference in ticket price was called a "donation" because there used to be tax advantages to the season ticket holder to call it that. For everything except tax accounting it was just a difference in ticket price for better areas of the stadium.

The recruiting staff initiative had a target amount. When you do that kind of fundraising, the donations can tail off shortly after you hit the goal. The fact we did it with 320 people might signify that we don’t need all that many people to hit a goal like that.

Undesignated money is so useful to an org like the AA though, and that’s why I’d also think the AT fund should be more like what IPTAY started as. Students don’t usually have a ton of money, but make it easy for a student to give $5 or $10 and get an AT decal for your car and you’ve made it easy to give. New grads are often the same way. Do you want someone’s first donation to be 5 or 10 years after graduation?

I guess people are worried that if you make it easy to give $10 that people won’t give $100, but I think getting people to give the first $1 is the hardest step.

They do have a program for students and recent graduates. It used to be called First and Ten. Under that program students could donate $15 per year for five years while in school and receive priority point credit for $150. For five years after graduation, the required donation slowly increased. I don't remember the numbers, but something like $15 the first year up to $125 the fifth year. They received priority points for $150 all of those years, plus points for consecutive giving, plus points for consecutive years of season tickets, plus points for graduating. People who did that received a lot of priority points for not much in donations, and/but were "trained" to donate to athletics. I don't remember exactly how the new program works, but it is something like receiving extra priority points while in school and five years after graduation for donating a minimum amount or purchasing season tickets.

Everyone gets decals when they donate to the AT Fund.

Regardless, I think its less about fans being pathetic than the AA having built a model that excludes most of them.

They gave out flags a couple of years ago when you made a donation of $50 or more. They gave out hats and backpacks this year with donations of $404 or more.

I don't disagree that the GTAA needs to do more to market for smaller donations from a larger group of fans. I think TStan has done a very good job of trying different things.(Flags for $50 or more, hats/backpacks for $404, aligning with a large donor to match funds for a specific purpose, etc)

I don't see them making any new/different large changes to marketing for donations until January 2021, or when the final $25 million of AI2020 are raised. Hopefully at that point something will be put in place that markets towards small donations. If 100,000 people donated just $10 per month, that would raise $12 million per year.

BTW, I think AI2020 was a very good approach. One complaint I had heard previously was that donations to GT athletics went into a black box. AI2020 annunciated the various needs for money and made it apparent that donations can be designated for specific purposes. About 55-60% of the time has elapsed for AI2020 and they have raised 80% of the goal. I would guess it is possible that when people make donations at the end of the year for tax reasons that the goal could be reached a year early.

 

[slugboy]

Thats a specific reach for a donation and you are not correct for gts general fund. Many schools who have a general donation fund, like roll call, explicitly say the money is used for academic scholarships, academic support, and athletic support. Gts does not. That is why its called “unrestricted” donation which is what roll call is. Its up to the discretion of the organization how its spent. We decided to split the two efforts up and not share even phone call lists. Do u know when i was on the AA board many of our donors who donated to roll call thought it helped athletics too. They didn’t realize it does not.

Bottom line is the school can do more to help and chooses not to. And it goes so far to as even block the AA from soliciting from the same donors. I know. Because i lived it.

Our roll call funding is huge.

You are talking about grants. Not the same. Nor is a specific fund raising directive which would then be restricted.

I mentioned several things. I mentioned grants because several times on this board people have asked how we can have hundreds of millions in research dollars and not be able to send some of that money over to athletics. That’s apples and oranges.

You mentioned unrestricted donations wrt Roll call. I was talking about undesignated donations for AT—for example, if you explicitly give for a weight room, the AA might not be able to use the money on a recruiter’s salary. I wasn’t talking about Roll Call donations.

I’m not sure why we have that wall between our Roll Call fund and the AT fund. I hadn’t heard about the blocking of calling the same donors. I’ve always been used to the idea that Roll Call money is for academics and AT is for athletics.


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[33jacket]

I mentioned several things. I mentioned grants because several times on this board people have asked how we can have hundreds of millions in research dollars and not be able to send some of that money over to athletics. That’s apples and oranges.

You mentioned unrestricted donations wrt Roll call. I was talking about undesignated donations for AT—for example, if you explicitly give for a weight room, the AA might not be able to use the money on a recruiter’s salary. I wasn’t talking about Roll Call donations.

I’m not sure why we have that wall between our Roll Call fund and the AT fund. I hadn’t heard about the blocking of calling the same donors. I’ve always been used to the idea that Roll Call money is for academics and AT is for athletics.


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Correct on your last sentence. Yes roll call blocks the list. If you designate any donation its a restricted donation as your weight room example is correct.

Many schools general fund supports both or can support both. Ours splits it. Roll call is well staffed, funded, and takes the bulk of donation money, AT is left behind.

 

[Vespidae]

I didn't include the "donations" for season tickets because they are not really "donations". The base price for all tickets,(except in the very top of the Upper North) are the same price.(I think there is about a $25 difference in some areas this year). The difference in ticket price was called a "donation" because there used to be tax advantages to the season ticket holder to call it that. For everything except tax accounting it was just a difference in ticket price for better areas of the stadium.

That is not accurate. Previously, one was required to make a donation to the AT-Fund to earn points which in turn, could be used for better seats. Today, you still have to make a donation to the AT-Fund when purchasing tickets. It's just done differently, but the funds go to two different groups .. one for Operations and one for Grants.

 

[Vespidae]

I don't disagree that the GTAA needs to do more to market for smaller donations from a larger group of fans. I think TStan has done a very good job of trying different things.(Flags for $50 or more, hats/backpacks for $404, aligning with a large donor to match funds for a specific purpose, etc)

This isn't going to help. Look at FSU … MOST of their money comes from membership in the Seminole Club, whose sole responsibility is fund raising. My own brother in law is an Alabama booster who takes part in car washes, doughnut sales, discount restaurant books, etc … all to raise money for Alabama football. Magnify that by 162 clubs … and you are talking real money. Tech has no comparable organization that exists to raise money in scale.

 

[Vespidae]

I’m not sure why we have that wall between our Roll Call fund and the AT fund. I hadn’t heard about the blocking of calling the same donors. I’ve always been used to the idea that Roll Call money is for academics and AT is for athletics.

This I think, is a huge problem for Tech. Here at Auburn, athletics is considered part of the Total Person Concept and all Auburn students are encourages to participate in recreational activities and support athletics. And they do. Moreover, the Alumni Association recognizes that spectator sports unites the alumni base and increases TOTAL donations. Tech has yet to understand this or frankly, doesn't care. I look at the amount of money Tennessee grads leave to UT and it's staggering. But then again, UT has a whole program to help create the right environment for being part of the university post-grad and making giving part of that. Tech doesn't. Big miss.