Let’s do a mailbag! And how would Tech fit in the SEC?
That’s right I used an exclamation point in the headline. That’s how excited I am about doing our second e-mail mailbag.
Send me any question you may have about any Georgia Tech sport and I’ll do my best to provide you an insightful answer.
I’ll post the answers on a blog on Tuesday at lunchtime. That’s Tuesday at lunchtime. There was some confusion about the publication of the answers when we did the last mailbag.
—
Now, on to the pie-in-the-sky topic that esteemed colleague (to borrow Mark Bradley’s phrase) Tony Barnhart broached last week.
As many of you know, expansion is the topic du jour for several conferences. The Big 10 has openly said it’s considering it. The SEC said it has reviewed scenarios. I await an answer from the ACC if it too has reviewed or is reviewing scenarios.
Should one or two of the conferences make a move, Barnhart suggested that the SEC may turn to the ACC and try and lure Clemson and Georgia Tech, among others, into the fold.
While I think that Clemson and FSU (the other possibility) would be natural fits because of the stadium sizes and geographic footprint of the fan bases, I’m not sure that Tech would. I’m also not sure that they would want to, unless it came to that.
Financially, it’s a no-brainer. Thanks to ESPN’s largess, SEC schools pull in the second-highest per school revenues behind those from the Big 10, which has its own TV network funding the athletics department.
The ACC is in the process of negotiating new TV deals for football and men’s basketball. It’s unlikely to pull in the $2 billion over 15 years that ESPN pledged to the SEC.
While Tech was once a founding member of the SEC, I would be very surprised to see the dominoes fall in such a way that find Tech back in the fold.
Some comparative stats, courtesy of Wikipedia (so take them with a grain of salt). These are meant for talking points only:
College/Metro pop./Year founded/Affiliation/Enrollment/Joined
University of Florida/ (114,916)/1853/Public/51,474/1932
University of Georgia/ (113,398)/1785/Public/34,180/1932
University of Kentucky/ (282,114)/1865/Public/26,054/1932
University of South Carolina/ (127,029)/1801/Public/27,488/1991
University of Tennessee/ (184,802)/1794/Public/30,410/1932
Vanderbilt University/ (596,462)/1873/Private/12,093/1932
Western Division
University of Alabama/ (90,221)/1831/Public/27,014/1932
University of Arkansas/ (73,372)/1871/Public/19,849/1991
Auburn University/ (56,088)/1856/Public/24,530/1932
Louisiana State University/ (223,689)/1860/Public/28,810/1932
University of Mississippi/ (17,265)/1848/Public/15,289/1932
Mississippi State University/ (24,187)/1878/Public/17,824/1932
Georgia Tech/5,000,000+/1885/Public/12,966/1885
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432 comments Add your comment
Atlanta Gator
May 1st, 2010
9:30 am
Tech would be a great fit. UF and Vandy need another school with stellar academic credentials to join the conference. Tech would have a hard time in football, but they do well in overall sports and would hold their own after November. It would help Tech recruit better athletes to be a member of a decent conference. Winners want to play winners.
ATH
May 1st, 2010
10:21 am
If/when the SEC expands, they’ll likely add 4 teams. They’ll first go after FSU and Miami. Then the other two are up for debate. Tech is an option among others including VaTech, Clemson, UNC. Would Tech be good for the SEC? Maybe. They wouldn’t bring in much in the way of additional money and we all know that is the driving force behind conference expansion.
UGABasketball
May 1st, 2010
10:36 am
SEC are not we own Paul Hewitts. Hope you keep that great coach for life. He couldn’t beat us if his life depended on it. We got a Fox on his ass.
richard
May 1st, 2010
10:47 am
WHY DID GA TECH ALABAMA BREAK CONTRACT TO PLAY ANYONE KNOW THE REASON
Rikki Tikki Tava
May 1st, 2010
11:11 am
Atlanta Gator = I guess that is why you all always have a weak schedule EVERY year. Like last year, just floated along playing a UGA or UT scattered in, and then get absolutely PUMMELED against BAMA. Take yo’ stuff some where else, chump!
Gen Neyland
May 1st, 2010
11:20 am
Happy Uno de Mayo…GT in the SEC would reinvent a few rivalries that have been missing but it wouldn’t be worth it to me. Let ‘em keep playing UGA yearly and that’ll be enough SEC for the Jackets. ‘Course, if they could schedule our bottom feeders every season (Vandy, MS ST 2009), they’d think they were rolling over SEC powers year in, year out…People need to back off GT losing to Iowa. Iowa was not an inferior team…and I had them picked to beat GT.
Alabama Jack
May 1st, 2010
11:20 am
As dawg nation said, I’ll drink to that.
Gen Neyland
May 1st, 2010
11:23 am
…or did I have them picked to lose to GT..? Ahh, doesn’t matter. Did have LSU picked over GT, though. What good SEC follower could pull against LSU in a bowl..?
Kane337
May 1st, 2010
12:01 pm
Arkansas was founded in 1991? Huh?
Kane337
May 1st, 2010
12:02 pm
South Carolina founded in 1991 also? Huh?
Beast from the East
May 1st, 2010
12:48 pm
I’d love to see Tech in the SEC. Atlanta’s a major market and it would only help with future television deals (along w/ Miami). Adding a team like UNC and either FSU or V. Tech would complete the deal.
Tech would most likely struggle in football. Along the same lines as USC, KY, Ole Miss and MSU. They would add major depth in basketball and baseball to an already respectable conference in both sports. I think it would be a win for Tech (revenue) and for the SEC as a whole. From what I’m reading the only fan base that would oppose it is UGA.
bob
May 1st, 2010
2:19 pm
move boston college back to big east so carolina to ACC Louisville to SEC makes geographical sense,
superDawg
May 1st, 2010
2:28 pm
UGA was founded in 1785.
superDawg
May 1st, 2010
2:29 pm
and that was before your mamma.
Navigator
May 1st, 2010
2:49 pm
It would correct the biggest mistake made in the legacy of Bobby Dodd. He thought the program would become the southern Notre Dame or at least Penn State, but he was mistaken. Tech is fine where they are right now, being near the top in several sports (ACC). Let’s not forget that Tech has fared well with trips to Auburn, MState, Vandy, but they are not near Alabama, LSU or Florida, so the best they could hope to be in Football is middle or high middle, unless they take the program/recruiting up a notch. I disagree that Tech’s basketball team would be contending every year, however. The SEC is a tough league, and the problems they suffer now will follow them. In the secondary sports, they should do well in Lady basketball, baseball, golf and tennis.
hedgeplague
May 1st, 2010
4:03 pm
Reasons why NOT to join a souped up SEC.
The dreamer who sees us in the SEC…please not. Yes all the great dream matchups would be great to see…in football. But realistically, our SEC schedule wouldnt be any better than our ACC schedule. South Carolina, Kentucky and Vandy every year (assuming they dont bounce Vandy in all this) doesnt intrigue any more than Clemson UVA and UNC. Would you trade an annual game with Miami with a Florida. A VT with a Tennessee?
We already play Ugga, and typically one other SEC team anyway. I would concede that there would be a slight upside in the schedule and excitement at the stadium due to larger visiting crowds in some instances- BUT the trade offs of switching leagues are significant and IMHO not close to worth the upside.
1. 16 teams are too many. There will be no micro 4 team playoff as the NCAA will not even allow that for the NC. That means on AVERAGE a given team will win the conference championship once a generation. If you are Florida maybe you win it 4 times as often. Will a GT in the SEC all of a sudden be like UF…? Never say never, but I doubt it.
2. If you are looking forward to playing traditional SEC west powers…look for them at home once every 16 years. What is the good of being in conference with ALA if you can hardly ever play them. We do better scheduling SEC west teams by being in the ACC.
3. Sure for some football is king, but the rest of the year I get a kick out of seeing Brice Molder and Jason Variteck and other Tech athletes that have come out of our other programs that have flourished in the ACC. Not to say that these programs couldnt be great in the SEC, but is and “could” are Way different.
4. ACC basketball is THE reason that GT is even on the basketball landscape. We have had first rounders and hall of famers come out of GT because we are in the ACC. The SEC would mean a huge step backward in our BB program.
MariettaGator
May 1st, 2010
4:35 pm
blah blah blah blah blah the SEC would probably go to the West and Texas et al first, but I highly doubt those teams come to the SEC. If expansion occurs its most likely going to be Clemson, FSU, and VT first. The fourth team? Between Miami, GT, and Louisville. If I were Slive, to me GT puts more on the table than any of those other teams. Done and Done.
74 Dawg
May 1st, 2010
4:37 pm
Tech would never do it. They would be shown for what they are in the SEC.
OLD FAN from WAY BACK
May 1st, 2010
5:30 pm
Lived at Techwood homes before it became a dope filled getto. I was a big Tech fan. Still am to some extent.I was shocked to hear Tech leaving the SEC. When they tried to rejoin in the 60’s if I remember right it was Shug Jordan at Auburn that would not vote them back in. Why I don”t know. I would love to see them back in the SEC. I beleive it would help in recruiting. We can debate it from now till the end time, but I beleive the SEC is the top conf. in the nation.
supersize that order, mutt
May 1st, 2010
5:34 pm
OLD FAN, it was Dooley who wouldn’t agree to let Tech back in, and it was the mid to late 70s.
SDDubb
May 1st, 2010
5:36 pm
Also, when looking at metro population, you counted Vandy’s as being 596,462 but that is not accurate. Metro Nashville has a much larger population than that – pushing 2,000,000. Perhaps you were only counting Davidson County, TN, and not Metro Nashville MSN. Make sure it’s apples to apples.
BS Patrol
May 1st, 2010
5:42 pm
For Tech there’s only one way to put it. Penthouse to outhouse(Vandy excluded).
Admiral Ackbar
May 1st, 2010
8:03 pm
With the exception of Vanderbilt, the academic standards of the SEC are unacceptably low. Membership in the current SEC would degrade our degrees–no thank you. Next thing you know, we will be asked to marry our sisters like UGA graduates and work at Wendy’s.
JawjunY'all
May 1st, 2010
8:15 pm
Three reasons TECH left the SEC
1 – Dodd wanted to schedule more nationally elite teams to avoid losing crowd appeal to the expected FALCON’s arrival;
2 – The SEC teams had become too extreme in “win any way” football with retractible scholarships and lack of academic requirements for entering or staying in school, and
3 – for failure to censure Alabama when a player blatently socked Chick Granning after a play ended and sent him to the hospital with a broken jaw. The fact that America’s winingest coach, the Bear, had only recently come to Alabama, certainly did had something to do with it.
About the Bear – - national winners at Kentucky, Maryland, Texas AM, and Alabama. Wow! Babe Parrilli, then the Mos, then Crow, and then Namath. His first year at TexAM he kicked off the team all but 23 players, and the only game he won that season was against UGA. I saw the game and cheered the winner all the way, but didn’t have to stand up during the game. Dodd lost every game with the Bear at Alabama and didn’t like the way he played the “game?” nor the way the SEC was happy to see the way the cash register was ringing. Tulane, also, was no slouch when it left the SEC at about the same time as TECH. A contest between the Irish vs Green Wave went for the national championship in the late 40’s.
TECH is where it belongs. Academically, the ACC ought to trade Clemson or FSU or Miami for Vandy. Geographically, we might consider trading away BC or Va Tech. On the other hand, all the (real) southern candidates are money makers.
supersize that order, mutt
May 1st, 2010
8:52 pm
Jawjun, Dodd beat Bear in Atlanta in 1962 by the score of 7-6. Bama was defending national champion and undefeated at the time.
Gate City Jacket
May 1st, 2010
8:57 pm
If you asked me about this 5 years ago I would have said no. Today I think it might work. I’m tired of the biased ACC refs in basketball and football here in NC. I miss seeing GT over here in NC too. Let’s go for it!
Mike Bobo Offense
May 1st, 2010
9:14 pm
The SEC doesn’t wan’t Tech. FSU sells out their stadium
russ GATA
May 1st, 2010
10:39 pm
Dodd giveth and Dodd took football away from the Flats.
Claimed some story about academics but thought GT would be a southern Notre Dame
WWWWWWWWWWWWWRong!!!!!!!!!!!
They would have been useful if CNN had sayed a player but we do not need them.
Dooly has consistantly suppoted that but the the Mississipi schools messed over by Dodd bit back,
Dodd turned his nose up at the Mississippi schools like humans do when they enter Grant field and see the piss trough and all the beauty of the North Avenue bus stop.
Druid Hills
May 1st, 2010
10:52 pm
Georgia Tech has won plenty of SEC Championships already,
maybe UGA should join another conference.
athdog
May 1st, 2010
11:41 pm
I think that Clemson and Tech would make great additions to a great conference. Hopefully they would not place Tech in the West, as you have them. Vandy would be, geographically, the logical western addition although it would foul up their yearly battle with UT-Knoxville. Maybe the conference would go to two ‘annual’ rivalries from the other side of the conference, then GA could still play Auburn every year along with Tech. It would make the annual beatdown of Tech even sweeter knowing that most years, at least 8 out of every 9 years, we could add the Tech victory to our SEC belt. 30-24 rules.
AFDawg
May 2nd, 2010
7:02 pm
Everyone is forgetting one thing. Being in the SEC is more than just football. Tech has and never will be competitive in sports across the board — even with their huge recruiting base. Tech has only won one NCAA national championship (a women’s tennis title a few years back) in it’s entire history. Look at the 100’s of NCAA titles SEC schools have won. Tech would get decimated in the SEC. Georgia State will be a better fit in a few years,
mwh6767
May 2nd, 2010
8:15 pm
Take off the oxygen mask AFdawg. Not competitive across the board??? UM, lets see. Orange Bowl berth, Ncaa tourny birth plus an opening round win, top 5 baseball team, the tennis team you mentioned, baseball team always in top 20, womens softball ranked and womens b-ball team in ncaa tourny. Golf team is top ranked as well. Take the red and black blinders off buddy tech is very competitive in the whole world of ncaa athletics.
SiddyBoy
May 2nd, 2010
8:15 pm
I didn’t know that the SEC lets high school join !
mwh6767
May 2nd, 2010
8:22 pm
The other thing that gets me, besides UF, Bama , and LSU who else is better than any other middle of the pack team from any other conf. Carolina? UGA? Ole Miss. All these teams are middle of the road , capable of pulling an upset but nowhere near an elite team. The SEC is top-heavy with the before mentioned 3 have nc’s other than that , you are looking at the middle of the pack from any other major conf.
Atlanta Gator
May 2nd, 2010
8:36 pm
Florida desparately needs another decent academic university in the SEC. UF is one of the honored programs in the country that achieves competitive excellence in the halls of learning and on the playing field. Welcome to the SEC. Join with other AAU members, Vandy and UF, to show doofus universities that dual excellence is attainable.
Stinger
May 2nd, 2010
9:34 pm
Tech owns the SEC. I say go for it since it would be easier to win the SEC conference Championship than the ACC.
DawgBoi
May 2nd, 2010
10:06 pm
stinger – last 3 SEC champs won the National Championship. What did the last 3 ACC champs do? BTW, why are you all so scared to play Bama?
DawgBoi
May 2nd, 2010
10:07 pm
oh wait, I meant the last 4 champs..
DawgBoi
May 2nd, 2010
10:09 pm
Trivia – name the last ACC champ to win their bowl game..
DawgBoi
May 2nd, 2010
10:17 pm
i know its a difficult question b/c you all have only had how many championship games now?
DawgBoi
May 2nd, 2010
10:25 pm
sorry to have brought a dose of reality to this blog. i will leave now. you all may proceed with your trekkie or dungeons & dragons role playing..
messin with sasquatch
May 3rd, 2010
7:51 am
like that title dogboi. i may change my name for the doggs.
Yep
May 3rd, 2010
8:28 am
Basketball and Baseball: Complete Domination. End of story. Even with the sometimes shaky BBall Program.
As for Football, I think GT would fall 3rd or 4th in the East. 4th or 5th in the West. After a few good years of recruiting that would improve.
supersize that order, mutt
May 3rd, 2010
10:20 am
Dawgboi, for what it’s worth, Va Tech was the last ACC champion to win its bowl. When was the last UGAG team to live up to expectations? When was the last UGAG team that didn’t have a single player arrested at some point? When was the last time you licked your butt?
GTPhenom
May 3rd, 2010
10:31 am
I would have absolutely no problem with GT going back to its roots in the SEC. You look at all of the historical rivalries that GT had in the SEC, and that alone should get any true football fan psyched. GT/Auburn, GT/Bama, GT/UGA, and to some extent, GT also had rivalries with Tennessee and Florida. Monetarily, there is no downside, and I, unlike some fans, am not going to be on my high horse about the academics. Vandy is a fine institute academically, and they are in the SEC. Now, onto the whole, “GT can’t compete in the SEC,” crap. How do you figure? On an average year, GT would at the very least beat or give the following teams a run for their money: Ole Miss, MSU, Arkansas, Tennessee, AU, Kentucky,Vandy, UGA, and South Carolina. LSU would be interesting every year, and we would have easily competed with them recently. The only two teams that have shown any true Dominance in the SEC are Bama and Florida. And last I checked you don’t always play teams from the other division in your schedule. UGA fans need to get off this high horse of theirs that the SEC is so much more dominant overall. Overall, the SEC is just another normal conference.
DawgBoi
May 3rd, 2010
10:36 am
a) 2007 – finished season ranked #2 nationally
b) boys will be boys. everyone eventually learns actions beget consequences
c) dont have to. your mom tosses my salad
You deserve a little credit for stepping up to the plate though..
DawgBoi
May 3rd, 2010
10:39 am
1-8 in the last 9 match-ups vs .UGA. If thats what you call giving us a run for our money then you all have obviously conceded football in this state..
DawgBoi
May 3rd, 2010
10:57 am
“I RUN THIS BLOG”
Stinger
May 3rd, 2010
11:03 am
DawgBoi is really Dawggir. How would you like a punch in the face? The last time UGAY won anything was 1980. If you don’t believe me ask Coach Paul Johnson.
DawgBoi
May 3rd, 2010
11:12 am
8 wins minimum last 13 years. 2 SEC championships under Richt. CPJ has as many losses to UGA in 2 years as Richt has against the wreck in 9 years. You are aware of what winning is right? I know its foreign to the wreck..