Yes, but like all major decisions, you have to provide context. Also, he tried to get back in 15 years later, and had support of Alabama, LSU, Florida, Tennessee, Vandy, and Kentucky, but was voted down due to the Mississippis, Auburn, and especially UGAg. Does he get any credit for that?
This is the context that younger fans cannot, or do not, understand. Was it ultimately a bad decision? Yes. Even Dodd himself recognized this. He and Bear and Ray Graves tried to rectify the situation but it was blocked by 4 schools.
No as he pulled out and then as AD watched all GT sports go down. Good man. Not a good AD. College sports changed dramatically in the 1960, especially in the Soouth. GT was left at the Train Station watching college sports leave us behind.
and to be honest, the SEC has continued with that philosophy until today. As they say in the SEC , “if you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’"
SECheat has been SECheat for a long time. Their desire to keep Tech out of the SEC ought to tell any thinking person all they need to know about what this was really all about. But some people love winning more than fairness, anathema to Dodd, and will even crap on their own team’s legacy if they can “join the winners.” No matter how stupid and corrupt that club often is.
Sad but true. I don’t value winning at college football to want that. My self-esteem is planted in other things. Football is entertainment and a source of accomplishment. Ask any of those senior players if they feel like they’ve accomplished much the past 3 seasons and I’ll bet to a man they’ll say much. Not that all of them didn’t want to beat UGA badly.
We had presidents then that could care less about sports as well. They were more interested in building the reputation of our academic standing. Personally i am prouder of my degrees from GT than if i had a degree from Alabama and ran around shouting Roll Tide.
I would agree, but say it’s also winning more than integrity and character. I have had more than one dwag fan state that, when confronted with the number of arrests of u(sic)ga players, ”Who cares about that as long as we’re winning.”
Or a “degree” from georgia and ran around barking like a basset hound in heat.
Sad but true.
All true. And a big reason why GT athletics are on a lower tier then Alabama's and much of the SEC. It's who GT is.
I am going to assume Root is talking about integration. Maybe not, but that was the biggest change in the 1960’s in CFB. I am reminded that GT recruited the first black QB at a major college in the south, and her president stood up to the segregationist GA governor by playing Pitt in the 1956 Sugar Bowl, thus participating in the first integrated football game in the Deep South. That was not the issue. Calculus was an issue, but that change had happened in the late 1950’s well prior to our departure. Dodd was, however, trying to help the recruiting deficits he was experiencing and the SEC’s tendency to abuse recruiting. It backfired, and the timing vis. the coming influx of media dollars was bad, but how could you know?
In reality, the SEC has very little advantage to adding Georgia Tech. UGA rules this state and the Atlanta marketplace. I think our best hope still remains the Big Ten because GT at least provides them access to Georgia which is the 8th largest state and Metro Atlanta which is the 9th largest marketplace. I think this all depends if the Big Ten wants to add multiple teams in the Southeast which is certainly not a given. GT is clearly aligned in academics. But to make it work athletically, we need to continue our upward momentum in football and turn around our basketball program.
We were so bad that they refused to put us in the top 10. Now we’re a quality win for UGAg. The hypocrisy is so blatant it’s actually funny how serious they take themselves.
Been cheating for so long that when they are made to play by the rules they believe they’re getting cheated.
I agree with the Sec due to regional purposes, i would hate to be in the B10 and have the team travel to Oregon, Washington and Cali for away games. But at the end of the day i would rather be in the B10 then been left out of the power 2.
Need to get aligned with Clemson, fsu, and Miami and be the southern outpost for b10. I’d be happy playing those 3 every year along with 1-2 of psu, osu, Michigan, usc, Oregon. Gotta suffer through the Minnesotas and Illinois and Rutgers of the conference but it’s not much different than bc, cuse, smu, cal.
ATLANTA is a differentiator. Largest Airport to from game easy) , Fortune 500, things to do. Quality recruits easy view games.
