If the SEC asked, would/should Georgia Tech say yes?
Not long after the conference expansion issue really started to heat up, I found myself in a charity golf foursome with a couple of Georgia Tech guys. We were waiting to hit, so I just asked them point blank:
“If Georgia Tech got an invitation to leave the ACC and join the SEC, would you vote to go?”
Response No. 1: “In a New York minute.”
Response No. 2: “Can we go today?”
Now look, Georgia Tech has had a very good football home in the ACC since 1983. It is the defending ACC champions. And the situation got a lot better on Monday when the ACC landed a very good television deal with ABC/ESPN that will pay the league $155 million per year. In this economy, the ACC essentially doubled their money from the previous contract and that is quite an accomplishment. A number of people (this writer included) thought that the numbers might be lower so give the ACC kudos for getting that deal done.
Having said all that, there are two questions we will ponder today:
How/Why does Georgia Tech get on the SEC’s radar?
Why would/should Georgia Tech even consider leaving the ACC?
First, some history: Georgia Tech was a charter member of the Southeastern Conference in 1933 and remained in the league through the 1963 season, when the school withdrew and became a Southern Independent. We won’t debate the reasons why or the wisdom of Georgia Tech’s move. The fact is that Tech was a member of the SEC for 31 years.
People of a certain age will remember going to Grant Field and watching Georgia Tech, as a member of the SEC, play in some of the best rivalries in all of college football. The Georgia rivalry you know about, but did you know:
That Georgia Tech and Auburn have played 92 times? Tech first played Auburn in 1892 and from 1904 to 1987 the schools met every year but two (1905, 1943).
That even after it left the SEC, Georgia Tech also kept playing Tennessee? Between 1964 and 1987 Georgia Tech and Tennessee met every year but three (1974, 1975, 1978).
That there was no fiercer rivalry in the 1960s than the one between Alabama and Georgia Tech? Bear Bryant and Bobby Dodd were friends until the 1961 game, when Tech’s Chick Graning received a blow to the head from Alabama’s Darwin Holt. It broke Graning’s jaw and nose and put him in the hospital. The episode touched off a war of words between newspapers in the two states and drove a wedge between Bryant and Dodd. A year later Alabama came to Grant Field with an 8-0 record and ranked No. 1. Georgia Tech handed Alabama its only loss that season, 7-6. After the 1964 game the two teams did not play again until 1979. They played six straight years until 1984 and have not played since. They were scheduled for a two-game series in 2013 and 2014 but those games have now been postponed.
The point is that Georgia Tech has a lot of history with the current members of the SEC.
Here is how Georgia Tech could get an invitation from the SEC: If the Big Ten expands to 16 teams and exponentially increases its revenue (now at about $22 million per team), the SEC, which pays about $17 million per team, will have a decision to make. If the SEC decides that it must expand as well, some teams from the ACC could come into play if the SEC wants to strengthen its Southeastern footprint.
Whether or not the SEC would extend an invitation to Georgia Tech is a matter of some debate. The argument could be made that with the University of Georgia, the SEC already controls the state’s market place. But the same argument could be made about Clemson (because of South Carolina) and Florida State (because of Florida).
Why Georgia Tech would say yes:
1) More money. Georgia Tech needs it. Even with the ACC’s new contract, there will be about a $4 million gap in shared revenue per team. If the SEC expands, that gap could grow.
2) Easier scheduling. If Georgia becomes a conference game, then Tech has another non-conference game to play with. That would guarantee at least seven home games a season. That is also more money.
3) Better attendance: Bobby Dodd Stadium holds 55,000. With Paul Johnson in place, attendance is picking up as over 50,000 turned out for five of six games last season. The year before (2008) only one game drew over 50,000 (Florida State). But what if Georgia Tech were placed in an SEC division that included Clemson, Georgia, Florida, Florida State, Miami, South Carolina and Tennessee? How great would the demand for tickets be? How much more would people pay just for the right to buy them? More money.
Why Georgia Tech would say no:
1) The school has 27 years invested in the ACC. It has become a good fit for the Institute, both philosophically and academically.
2) Winning the ACC football championship is hard. Winning the SEC is harder. That’s just a fact. Writer Rick Bragg once said that every SEC game “is like a knife fight in a ditch.”
3) You can’t go back. As much as the old guard romanticizes about good old days the fact remains that it’s been 47 years since Tech left the SEC and the world has really changed.
So if you’re a Georgia Tech fan and you got a vote, would you vote to go back to the SEC if the invitation came? Or do you think the ACC is still the best place for the Yellow Jackets?
If you’re an SEC fan, would you like to see Georgia Tech come back?
The floor is yours.
Please follow me on Twitter:
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
661 comments Add your comment
UGAisSoThreeDecadesAgo
May 18th, 2010
12:54 pm
Playing Auburn and UTenn every year was great. Add Clemson and UGA and a few others and it would be fun. Of course FSU, Miami, VT and Clemson are not sloppy seconds. I am actually not sure which would fit. But if the ACC were to lose some of the bigger name schools, I would vote to leave and go to the SEC.
Dan
May 18th, 2010
12:54 pm
Whatever you say, L S U.
Dan's boss
May 18th, 2010
12:55 pm
Dan,
I’m not paying you 7.50 an hour to waste company time on the blogs. Now, start digging or I’ll replace your dumb a$$ with a more educated and qualified illegal immigrant.
kgator79
May 18th, 2010
12:55 pm
Dan…nobody is picking and chosing who is part of the SEC. But you have to expect that nobody is going to care that Georgia Tech has 4 wins against the SEC when 3 of those wins are against Miss. State and Vanderbilt. Thats just the facts. Not even Duke fan would be impressed with that.
Dan
May 18th, 2010
12:56 pm
You’re right. You’re not paying me $7.50/hr. I make a bit more than that.
Joe Fan
May 18th, 2010
12:56 pm
I just don’t understand why people throw Miami into expansion talks. They bring absolutely nothing to the table and haven’t for many years. GT if offered should go to the Big 10. It is a much better fit academically and will be great fit monetarily and from an attraction standpoint to the many transplants in Atlanta. Plus it will tweak the SEC’s nose to have a Big 10 footprint in the southeast.
kgator79
May 18th, 2010
12:57 pm
Dan…oh excuse me. Sorry I missed the vaunted Georgia Tech/Miss. State matchup to remember where it was played. But I stand correct. Yet the question still stands, how is 11 points winning easily and 10 points is struggling?
Dan
May 18th, 2010
12:57 pm
Not the point, kgator79. You can’t say the conference is so deep and strong and then say that some wins don’t really count. I would agree that the conference is extremely top heavy. Deep? That’s debatable.
Alphare
May 18th, 2010
12:57 pm
Of course Tech will do great in the SEC. In year 2007, UGA took 11 4-star players while Tech took 7. If Tech is with SEC, I’d imagine Tech can match with UGA in recruiting shoulder-to-shoulder with UGA.
Wasn’t Tech perceived better than UGA during Tech’s SEC era? Tech has a great historic record against most SEC schools.
Dan's boss
May 18th, 2010
12:58 pm
Dan,
Stop lying about your income and career. I knew I should of thought twice before I hired a pathological liar. I think I’m going to go by home depot tomorrow morning looking for your replacement.
Hey Dogtards
May 18th, 2010
12:58 pm
Don’t forget that MSU beat Ole Miss too.
Dan
May 18th, 2010
12:58 pm
Well it cuts to the point of your comment, kgator79. You made that a central point.
Also, the nature of the UF game was significantly different. Miss St was in that game the whole time. They never really competed against Tech.
Dan
May 18th, 2010
12:59 pm
Ok, boss. You go ahead and fire me. Please.
The truth
May 18th, 2010
12:59 pm
Gt is an average engineering school. It’s for those who do not get in the top tier programs. FACT.
Vandy Fan
May 18th, 2010
12:59 pm
I work at Vanderbilt but went to school in Chapel Hill. Most of you are too emotionally involved in all of this. As it stands, the 12 ACC schools will receive ~$4 million less/year than the 12 SEC schools from their major television deals. What I don’t understand is why anyone thinks that adding more schools is going to increase these numbers substantially.
The ACC did a bit worse with their recent deal because of the economy. Do any of you really think that adding GT or Clemson or even Miami to the SEC brings in ~$17 million/year/school? The only conference that would seem to benefit from expansion economically is the big ten because of their TV network. Perhaps that is what both the SEC and ACC should be exploring?
Dan
May 18th, 2010
1:01 pm
The truth clearly has no interest in the truth.
JW
May 18th, 2010
1:02 pm
The truth
You can’t even say that with a straight face
kgator79
May 18th, 2010
1:04 pm
Dan….HA! So now thats not the point. You make the following statement…
“Miss. State gave y’all everything you wanted this year. We handled them pretty easily”.
If your going to make statements, at least back it up with the actual facts. And the fact is, just as everyone looked down on Florida only beating Miss. State by 10, Georgia Tech does not receive any more credibility for being a tough team able to play with the top SEC teams because you all beat Miss. State twice and Vanderbilt once in the last two years.
BamaU
May 18th, 2010
1:04 pm
Tech would be able to beat Auburn every once in a while if they joined the SEC.
gcs
May 18th, 2010
1:04 pm
Tech moving to the SEC would be like a AAA All-Star pitcher moving up to the Major Leagues. In AAA, he has great stats and is a star. In the Majors, the pay is higher, the perks are better and mom & dad can see you on TV. But the competition is tougher and he is going to rocked and suffer a lot of losses.
Paul Johnson
May 18th, 2010
1:06 pm
I’m figuring out how I’m going to replace Jonathan Dwyer in next season’s Junior High Offensive attack.
Pope UGA XXIII
May 18th, 2010
1:07 pm
This article is just taking up space.
Tech will not get an invite to rejoin. Check with Ole Miss, Vandy,
and Mississippi State, and probably Kentucky who Tech did not
wish to play since they did not have large stadiums in those days.
If my math is correct, Tech’s stadium seats less than all of those
schools other than Vanderbilt. Tech’s roundball facility seats less
than all 4 schools. Certainly, the “Stegosaurus” is a small facility,
but the shortfall is more than made up from Sanford stadium. Again,
some of my arithmetic sez that 96,000 is greater than 55,000.
Rivalries are great, but “it’s the money what talks nowadays”.
Hey Dogtards
May 18th, 2010
1:08 pm
Didn’t go there, but GT is #4 in engineering school rankings, behind only MIT, Stanford, and UC Berk.
Pretty stupid to say its not top tier.
http://whichuniversitybest.blogspot.com/2009/04/us-news-engineering-school-rank-2010.html
Big B CH 99
May 18th, 2010
1:08 pm
I’m a Tech student and a lifelong fan that thinks if offered Tech has to go.
This is assuming that other ACC schools are going to (Clemson, FSU, Miami, etc). The big thing that you risk by staying in those circumstances is being one of a couple of football programs left to play a watered down schedule in a basketball conference. Your certainly don’t wanna be left in an ACC w/o Clem, FSU, or Miami.
Yes, the SEC or possibly the Big 10 would love to have VT, but the state politics will make that difficult. I think that the state of Virginia will mandate that UVA go w/ VT, and the SEC certainly doesn’t want VT. I think there would be a better chance of seeing VT & UVA go to the Big 10, b/c the Big 10 might be willing to take UVA b/c of the academics.
And I don’t think the SEC would want NC St, right now, Tech is a better football program than NC St, so why would the SEC take NC St, and b/c of politics its possible that NC St is a packaged deal w/ UNC. UNC is a football program on the rise, but they are and always will be a basketball school first. Why would they leave a great B-ball conference to go to a weak one.
Kgator79
May 18th, 2010
1:10 pm
Dan….you’re right. I’m stupid
Dan
May 18th, 2010
1:11 pm
You’re all over the map, kgator79.
You said that Tech’s win was less impressive than y’all’s because it was at home. Except that it wasn’t at home. Now you’re saying that UF was looked down on (interesting, considering they were the top ranked team in the nation) because they won by ten and that Tech should not receive any credit for winning by 11.
Fair enough. The only issue is that we hear all the time about how tough the SEC is. Presumably, just by virtue of playing an SEC school, we would have been dismantled. You can’t really have it both ways.
The truth
May 18th, 2010
1:11 pm
Creating fighting robots does not advance society.
kgator79
May 18th, 2010
1:11 pm
OH! So now the nature of the games were different in Florida facing Miss. State than Georgia Tech? Good one! Lets see what was so different? Georgia Tech up by 11 with 9 minutes to go, compared to Florida up by 11 with 9 minutes to go? Or how about Georgia Tech up by 18 with 7 minutes to go, compared to Florida being up by 16 with 8 minutes to go? Yeah some real different natures there. Only difference is Georgia Tech defense giving up all those points to Miss. State, while UFs defense only gave up 6 points to that same offense.
kgator79
May 18th, 2010
1:12 pm
nice attempt at trying to pretend to be me. sorry but my k is not capitalized
kgator79
May 18th, 2010
1:14 pm
Dan…once again. Point is, dont expect some sort of respect from SEC fans pounding your chest about wins over Miss. State and Vanderbilt. Thats the point of all this.
Kgator79
May 18th, 2010
1:14 pm
On purpose dumba$$
Lunchtime links: Jackson leaving Alabama | theSPORTSpage Arkansas
May 18th, 2010
1:15 pm
[...] Tony Barnhart of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wonders what it would look like if Georgia Tech decided to move to the SEC. [...]
PAUL R.
May 18th, 2010
1:15 pm
Absolutely not. The standards of excellence required for all ACC schools is no match with the sec. No Basketball Admin Majors, Sports Weaving, and Plastic majors designed to attract the best athletes with the smallest brains
GT1973
Dan
May 18th, 2010
1:16 pm
Then don’t talk about how tough your conference is.
dawgfan
May 18th, 2010
1:18 pm
GT Alum, why would I need to make such a convoluted argument to prove UGA’s superiority over Tech on the football field? The scoreboard and record book says it all. I’ll leave all the half baked and intellectually weak arguments to the Techies who aren’t half as brainy as they think they are. In fact, you’re some of the thickest nimwits I’ve ever encountered when it comes to football. Facts mean very little to you. Its all about what you WANT to believe and what you want everyone else to believe. Its insecure, pathetic, and absolutley hilarious.
LOL @ Tech fans. How many would show up at the Joke by Coke if they were battling South Carolina for 4th in the East every year? Not many.
Dan
May 18th, 2010
1:19 pm
I believe Musa Smith was a Sports Studies major at UGA, Paul R. You definitely need to add that to your list.
Lunchtime links: Jackson leaving Alabama | Hog Country Online
May 18th, 2010
1:20 pm
[...] Tony Barnhart of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wonders what it would look like if Georgia Tech decided to move to the SEC. [...]
Dan
May 18th, 2010
1:20 pm
“LOL” dawgfan? Are you a 13 year old girl?
Tide Rising
May 18th, 2010
1:23 pm
There is really only one question to be asked in all this talk of expansion and adding teams like Tech.
That question is if its more profitable for the SEC want to expand its tv footprint or is it more profitable to have schools that are more culturally and geographically aligned such as Tech, FSU, Clemson, etc.
Would those schools bring more money given that those tv markets are already covered by current sec teams or would it be much more profitable to go after the Texas-Oklahoma tv footprints? The answer to that question dictates everything.
If its more profitable to bring in the Texas/Oklahoma tv market then the solution is really pretty easy and it is this:
Add Texas, Texas A&M, OU, and Ok. State to the west division and move Bama and AU to the east division. Its that simple and its the best solution if we’re going after tv market dollars.
Its the best solution being that practically no huge rivalries would be lost by moving Bama-AU to the east. As a matter of fact some old rivalries like AU/UT and AU/UF and Bama/UGA would be restored as well as some old swc rivalries like Texas-Ark. The only serious rivalry lost on an every year basis would be Bama/LSU and AU/LSU and at best LSU is the 3rd biggest rival for each of those schools.
L S U
May 18th, 2010
1:27 pm
Paul R. Are you kidding? Tech, and the rest of the ACC have as many big, ignorant dummies as the other conferences. Don’t fool yourself. That’s always your excuse when you lose.
Advocare 100 minor bowl
May 18th, 2010
1:27 pm
SEC teams who play in Shreveport are not very good.
Hey Dogtards
May 18th, 2010
1:28 pm
@ The truth
You clearly don’t understand the Rock’em Sock’em robots revolution.
And if you want to talk seriously about advancing society, GT was the first college in the southeast to desegregate without a court order. Its currently ranked fourth in startup companies and eighth in patents by Milliken.
It’s ok, it won’t insult your manhood to admit GT is a good school.
POAD
May 18th, 2010
1:29 pm
Somebody said it eariler, but it is true. The Atlanta Chamber of Commerce should work hard to get TECH in the SEC. The Boon to Atlanta Resturants, Hotels, and Shops in Downtown for TECH games in the SEC would be huge. I am not sure about the Big 10 teams but I think they would love to fly to Atlanta in October and November too.
Doug
May 18th, 2010
1:30 pm
You’re right on LSU. My cousin played for tech in the ’90’s, and, even though I love him, he can barely spell his name. And he graduated too!
dawgfan
May 18th, 2010
1:30 pm
Dan, a 6-5 SEC team had it both ways with your candy azz defense on your own turf last year. We had it every damn way we wanted it to the tune of 300+ yards rushing. You’re the one wanting it both ways pal. You want all this credit for beating Vandy and Mississippi State but want everyone to ingnore humiliating losses to LSU and UGA. And yes Techie, anytime the #7 team in the nation loses to a 6-5 team its humiliating. Don’t try to pretend otherwise. We exposed you as the fraud that you were. You’ve got a lot of nerve criticising people for wanting it both ways. Techies ALWAYS want it both ways. They want all the pomp and circumstamce that comes with being a top team but don’t want to deal with the hightened scrutiny that also comes with being a top team. As soon as the going gets rough you cowards go and run behind the academic excuse or whine about how unfair recruiting is. Its pathetic. Techies talked a lifetime’s worth of smack leading up to those LSU and UGA games and now they want to act like it never happened. You can’t have it both ways Danny boy.
Dismissed.
Geography 101
May 18th, 2010
1:32 pm
SouthEastern Conference means the southeast,
not Texas and Oklahoma.
POAD
May 18th, 2010
1:33 pm
Doug give us a NAME if you are being truthful. Who is your CUZ?
Preston
May 18th, 2010
1:33 pm
To hell with GT! Those idiots tried to go all Notre Dame on the SEC and become independent. LOL. They’re right where they belong in the weak ass ACC. You guys should be happy that you compete in the pee wee league that makes you feel good about yourselves…….until your bowl game anyway. LMFAO!
Blue Grass
May 18th, 2010
1:33 pm
Kentucky and four other teams exposed the fraud dawgs.
FIVE time LOSERS
Dawg 3/20
May 18th, 2010
1:34 pm
Why are 10 of the 12 Under Armour All Americans from the state of Georgia enrolling in out of state schools to play ball this summer?