Wednesday October 18, 2006

The Tech Series; Is It a Rivalry and Does Atlanta Care?

The Most Competitive Series in the ACC
Clemson sports information director Tim Bourrett calls the Clemson-Georgia Tech series the most competitive series in the ACC and he gives the numbers to back it up. Clemson fans probably think the Tiger program is superior to Tech’s and that is probably not the case until the late 1970s. However, I do think that is the case since then. Clemson has won more games and been to better bowls in recent years. Their stadium is nicer and their support is far greater. Chan Gailey is in his fifth season and has not had a season where his teams won more than seven games. However, this series seemingly always comes down to the last seconds and usually is decided by a touchdown or less.

Nine of the last ten games have been decided by five points or less including a six game stretch (1996-2001) where the game was decided by exactly three points. The Tigers and Jackets have played 13 times since Georgia Tech joined the ACC with Clemson holding a 12-11 series advantage.

Only three of the last sixteen games have been decided by more than five points. The two teams have split those 16 games each winning eight. During this 16 game stretch, Clemson has been ranked six times and Georgia Tech has been ranked six times. Overall Clemson has been ranked 12 times when facing Tech and the Jackets have been ranked 13 times. Here is a look at the last 16 games:

Year Site Result
1990 A GT 21 Clemson 19
1991 H Clemson 9 GT 7
1992 A GT 20 Clemson 16
1993 H Clemson 16 GT 13
1994 H Clemsonn 20 GT 10
1995 A Clemson 24 GT 3
1996 H Clemson 28 GT 25
1997 A GT 23 Clemson 20
1998 H GT 24 Clemson 21
1999 A GT 45 Clemson 42
2000 H GT 31 Clemson 28
2001 A Clemson 47 GT 44
2002 H Clemson 24 GT 19
2003 A Clemson 39 GT 3
2004 H GT 28 Clemson 24
2005 A GT 10 Clemson 9

Rivalry?
As close as the series has been, I would not say many Clemson fans look at Georgia Tech as a rivalry. I think there is little hatred in the series. It is my believe that Clemson fans enjoy going to Atlanta for the game every other year as opposed to dreading it. I know some Tiger fans that will not go to Athens or Columbia but would not miss the Atlanta trip.

This is Clemson’s permanent cross division rival in the new ACC but it does not exactly feel like a rivalry. I could be wrong but I think many Clemson fans may rank their bitter rivals more in line with:
1. South Carolina
2. Georgia
3. North Carolina
4. Florida State

Do you have to dislike your opponent for it to be a rivalry? Does hatred really mean rivalry? I know Clemson fans that tell horror stories of their trips to College Park, MD in 2001. N.C. State has some classless fans that have made trips to Raleigh a little more stressful than trips to Atlanta.

Does Atlanta or the State of Georgia Care?
I can’t figure out if Tech fans are just nicer or they really don’t care. My last two trips to Atlanta led my to this question.

In 2003, Charlie Whitehurst went wild and hit up the Jacket defense for some quick scores in a 39-3 win. Clemson hit a big play right before half time to expand their big lead. I went to the men’s room at halftime and could not believe my ears. The Tech fans were not totally embarrassed. Instead they were talking about the Braves and their latest pennant run. The game was on September 20 and the Braves were a bigger item. The fans were more interested in the Braves and Falcons than the game they were watching. Maybe it’s the urban environment. Tech came into the game at 1-2 but I was shocked to see all of the empty seats between the 30 yard lines on the Tech side.

Last season, I sat in the upper deck in the end zone and was once again shocked. This time Georgia Tech came into the game with a 4-2 record and it was homecoming. Yet, empty seats where again prominent and about half of the luxury boxes were empty.

Georgia Tech is a solid football program but you could not tell the people of Atlanta this. Despite the feelings of the Governor of Georgia, the Atlanta media still talk much more about Georgia than Georgia Tech. I guess it is difficult to compete for media time when the priorities in your city appear to me to be:
1. UGA
2. Braves
3. Falcons
4. Tech
5. Hawks
6. Thrashers

The Yellow Jackets had two sellouts last year (Clemson and Georgia) and I know the Clemson game featured a couple of thousand empty seats.

This year they packed over 56,000 into Bobby Dodd Stadium for the season opener against Notre Dame. Tech played great on national TV so how have the fans responded? They had 9,000 empty seats against Samford and 11,000 empty seats for Troy. They had a national TV game on Thursday against Virginia and had 4,000 empty seats. After a great win at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, the city of Atlanta could not fill the stadium the following week and there were 4,000 empty seats against Maryland.

And, it’s not just the seats. The Tech message boards on the internet do not feature the traffic of UGA, Auburn, Alabama, etc. The sports radio talks shows there do not talk about them. Rarely do the local TV stations lead off their sports with Tech news. Simply stated the interest in Georgia Tech athletics is surprisingly missing.
According to the city’s website, the population of the greater metro Atlanta area is currently over 3,400,000, making it the 9th largest metro area in the U.S. Over half of Georgia's 6.47 million residents live, work and play in the greater Atlanta metro area. Atlanta has about the same population as the state of South Carolina. If Tech wants to get the city of Atlanta behind it maybe it should send its citizens tape of recent Clemson-Georgia Tech games. In my opinion, Atlanta you are missing it.

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