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[Photo: Series Poster. Click to Enlarge]
The latest twist in this long running series involves the addition of new characters to the series -- Georgia Bulldog Fans.
Starting in 2003, Georgia Tech's "Athletic" Department realized that its slipping Nielson Ratings and Ticket Sales in the face of expanded seating required drastic measures. To address this widening chasm of tickets available versus interest in the program, Athletic Director Dave Braine reached out to The University of Georgia's fans to purchase tickets to Tech games.
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[Photo: Series Poster. Click to Enlarge]
The result -- Maryland at Georgia Tech in 2003 saw more seats than ever filled for a Thursday Night "Thriller" [sic]. Pleased with the Nielson Ratings, ESPN canceled talks with the Honduran National Bobsled League to keep the moderately more popular Georgia Tech Football series in its regular Thursday slot.
Georgia Tech football, long known as the most successful and storied college program in Fulton County, will face Chuck Amato's Wolfpack. Will Reggie Ball and the struggling Georgia Tech offensive line be able to handle the aggressive Wolfpack Blitz? Or will Tech continue its decade long dominance over the Pack?
The Thursday Night Lights series provides a snapshot into the psyche of small-time programs across the country as they struggle to compete financially and athletically with larger more interesting programs. Who will win this week? Tune in to fine out.
On behalf of all Georgia fans gearing up for a very large pre-game BOO, I say...."See you at the game."
PWD
(Images courtest of NoleDawg from the DawgVent)
19 comments:
Jealous that you guys cannot crack in to college football version of Monday Night Football?
This is kind of ironic, given that Miami has played a lot of Thursday night games. The ACC (and Big East) in general sees a lot of Thursday night football games.
Future games:
Clemson at NC State
Virginia Tech at Maryland
Boston College at Virginia Tech
Pittsburgh at Louisville
Miami at Wake Forest
Hard to argue with those games, in particular Miami. After all, I think even you would agree that the Hurricanes are a slightly better overall program than Georgia. (Not talking about off the field, simply on the field.) I do think it is generally for smaller programs, but Florida State and Miami both have done it a lot over the years. Hard to argue with their overall success.
The Thursday night games are legit, as evidenced by the list of games a previous comment has already laid out. The fact that ESPN loves coming to Bobby Dodd Stadium must really annoy UGA fans.
And you need to take that weak Photoshop effort back to the drawing board.
http://www.gt-sportsfan.net/photos/albums/userpics/10001/cheatersposter.jpg
Wake Forest, Air Force, Utah, TCU, BYU, Southern Miss, Miss State, Toledo, Ohio, Northwestern, and NC State are hosting Thursday Night regularly. Those are some real powerhouses you're associating with.
Miami occasionally hosts Thursday night games against teams like Lville and WVU b/c their fans don't care either way.
Thinking that UGA fans are jealous of your Thursday attention is silly. I bet you had one of those moms that said "The other kids are only making fun you because they are jealous."
It's true that teams like Miami appear on Thursday nights, but their fans generally don't show very well for "small" games like the other guy had posted -- WVU and Louisville. Also, FSU never hosts Thursday night games. They play at mid-level ACC schools when they do appear on Thursday nights. In fact, the only time that big programs such as Florida, Tennessee or Notre Dame appear on Thursdays is when they're playing on the road at mid-level competition (Miss. St, Louisville, Vanderbilt) so don't go saying that Thursday Night Football is the equivalent to MNF. It's not even close and only serves as an appetizer to the 'real' games on Saturday.
Why on earth would a Ga fan be jealous of a Thursday night match up with NCST. Just because there will be just as many Ga fans there (including me) do not confuse this with jealousy. As a Ga fan we are not jealous of ANYTHING Tech has. Trust me; I speak for all Ga fans.
I also wanted to mention that FSU did indeed host a Thur night game against Clemson a few years back, I was there. So as you can see, even FSU isn't big-time with their home games yet. ACC games just aren’t on the same level, end of story.
As a Ga fan we are not jealous of ANYTHING Tech has.
I believe you maean anything we have other than our diplomas, paychecks, houses, cars, and number of teeth. Right?
Honestly, if you can't spell the word "mean," then I doubt any of us are going to be jealous of your paycheck.
I'm pretty sure my UGA diploma has a lot more going for it than your Tech one. Why would a UGA grad ever be jealous of a Tech degree?
I'll ask the Tech grads that work in our IT department and answer to UGA fans all day.
Seriously...show of hands...how many of you UGA fans really work for Tech grads? I'll bet the number is very close to zero.
I'll compare W-2 forms with a Tech grad anyday. What a joke.
I actually work in an IT department with mostly Ga grads and would put my paycheck up against anyone's, much less a Tech grad. Then after that, I would put my college experience up against a Tech grads too, (if you don’t know it wouldn’t even be close). It's not like it used to be, Ga is actually just as good an academic institution as Tech is, even better in most areas.
ps-I still have all my teeth too, get out of my face with that libelous statement, you certainly don’t scare me or my Bulldawg friends.
I believe you saw Miami play Thursday night games because of the Big East's pitiful television deal. Faced with the prospect of only playing regional ABC games, Miami realized that the only way they could get on ESPN was to play on Thursday. Which is also why VT played a couple of games a year on Thursday nights. I have no clue why they're playing BC on Thursday.
I think you'll find that the only SEC team that plays on Thursdays is Miss St. because they have trouble even playing the JP game regularly.
Georgia Tech is definitely playing home games on Thursdays to try and appeal to recruits and fans who wouldn't normally watch them on Saturday.
As for the being jealous...ESPN would be more than pleased if UGA, Auburn, UF, UT, bama, or LSU were willing to play a homegame on a Thursday. However the schools and towns would lose too much money. Plus why play Thursday night on ESPN when you can play Sat. night or on true national coverage on CBS.
Louisville-Miami last year was not a "mid-level" game. Louisville was unbeaten and ranked in the Top Ten and so was Miami. That was probably the Game of the Week for that weekend.
Florida State also played Louisville on a Thursday night.
I'm not trying to equate this with Monday Night Football at all. I do think the bigger games are on Saturday. But it is not small time football that goes on on Thursday nights. Sure, there are some stinkers, but if you just casually dismiss Thursday Night Football as meaningless, then you are missing some great action.
Anyone else remember the Florida State-Virginia Thursday night tilt back in the mid-90s when Virginia ended Florida State's long winning streak? What about when Auburn played Virginia on a Thursday night back in 1998?
And if it is showing teams like TCU and the like, this gives all you people that vote in the BlogPoll an actual chance to watch some of these teams play, since whenever I look at the games that you watched, they never include games other than ones played by the very top teams, and not very many of them. Gotta be watching those non-BCS schools or you have no right to be voting, in my opinion.
You're talking out of your ass frankly.
I've only listed the games I watched from 1 single week this year. So you haven't seen me listing only the games of big teams that I've watched.
This season, I've watched games involving:
Boise
Bowling Green
TCU
Utah
Air Force
Southern Miss
Memphis
Ole Miss
Vandy
Middle Tennessee State
UAB
Not talking about you necessarily. Talking about all the BlogPollers.
But you bring up the point. I said non-BCS and you included Vandy and Ole Miss. Those are not non-BCS teams.
You've watched nine non-BCS teams this year according to your list there. There are approximately 50 or 60 teams that are non-BCS. I've watched every single Divsion 1-A team play at least once, and most of them multiple times. How can you rank teams that you never watch play? It's impossible.
You've watched 117 Div I-A teams play? Dude, you're a liar. Ain't no way.
Furthermore, I actually attend games so there's no possible way I can watch more than 3 or so games a week. I've said that. It's no secret.
In an interview with SI.com, I said the biggest eye opener for me as a pollster is that the media and coaches don't see more than 3 games per weekend because they are ALSO at games.
If you're covering a game as a reporter, you see 1 game in person, cover that post-game press conference and have time so squeeze in parts of 2-3 other games per weekend.
No pollster other than a couch potato fan who never leaves the house Saturday or Sunday can watch enough games to see every Top 25 team play.
That's no secret.
But to sit here and say that you've seen every Div I-A team play, that's horse shit. Dude you're either an idiot or a liar.
Or I am a couch potato fan that has ordered ESPN Gameplan and has a satelite and TiVo's games and sets up ten TV's at a time. I'm not a liar. Simply a very devoted fan to the game of college football. Don't believe me if you want to.
And I do get paid to cover college football actually. I just am not at the games. I do all my legwork during the week and then sit at home and watch the games on Saturdays. Don't believe me if you don't want to. Whatever. No skin off my nose...
I like your blog. It's one of the ones that I go to every day. Really enjoy it....Keep up the good work.
One of the main reasons that Tech is so popular for abc/ESPN is because the production company is Based in Hotlanta and who would want to move all the equipment all the way to a podunk town like Athens? (I know the SEC has already got that CBS contract with a whole game a week)
Not jealous of anything, eh? Trust me you UGA grads should be jealous of my $10 cab ride home from the games to my own king-sized featherbed. Who's the DD home for an hour and a half?
I'm not jealous of your college experience either. I was able to see concerts all around the southeast of a band(Widespread Panic from Athens) that I love. Why? Because Atlanta is a hub to so many places in the SE.
Can we see something current? I don't know--how about this past weeks game or...
what are you idiots complaining about? I didn't force you to link over to this page today.
The article is a month old. If you want more current GT bashing, you should see the front page:
Nov. 2nd Fresh Anti-GT Bashing
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