Georgia Tech-Georgia State needs to become a series

Saturday was just Day 1 in the life of the state’s newest football rivalry, and it already was showing promise even before kickoff at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

Fans in Panthers royal blue mixed with Tech fans in white and gold, sharing tailgates outside and sitting next to each other in the stadium.

The fraternities offered their snarky welcomes to Georgia State fans (and perhaps revealed their insecurities) on messages painted on bedsheets.

“ATTENTION GSU STUDENTS – COOKOUT IS HIRING,” read one.

The anticipation and excitement that the game generated ahead of the matchup at Bobby Dodd Stadium spurs an obvious question – why not make this series, at the least, semiregular?

Georgia State athletic director Charlie Cobb wonders the same thing.

“We play Tech in every sport,” Cobb told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Saturday. “Why wouldn’t we play them in football, why wouldn’t we play them in basketball? The teams are competitive, and we’re hoping that continues.”

Tech AD J Batt was not quite as enthusiastic. In a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution regarding a possible future for the series, Batt said that Tech was excited for the opportunity to play Georgia State on Saturday and again in 2026, and excited for Atlanta and the state of Georgia.

“As for the future, we’re continually evaluating scheduling options in alignment with our goal of consistently competing for championships at the highest level,” Batt’s statement read.

It would have been nice if Batt had just said, “Tech is excited to commit to this series until the end of time and possibly longer.” And, in fairness, maybe Batt was being literal and actually is evaluating Georgia State as a possible opponent and drawing card.

But his not offering any endorsement for the future of the series – even “We’d like to find a way to make it happen” – is easy to understand.

This would not be a rivalry of equals. From a football standpoint, Tech takes on all the risk as the power-conference big shot while Georgia State gets to play the underdog neighbor from the Sun Belt Conference.

Consider the Yellow Jackets’ loss last year to another team from a Group of Five conference, Bowling Green. Imagine how much worse it would have felt and looked for all associated with Tech had it been to Georgia State instead – and how much mileage the Panthers would have gotten out of it at the Jackets’ expense.

So, ultimately, the future of this series depends on Tech’s willingness to make it happen.

“At the end of the day, from our end, it’d be something that we would definitely be interested in,” Cobb said. “It’s just like in life – it takes two to tango. We’ll have to see where Tech is on this one.”

If Tech continues to annually schedule an opponent from a Group of Five conference, there are reasons why it makes sense for Tech to play Georgia State at least on occasion. First, it would generate far more interest – among fans, recruits and sponsors – than would a game against another G-5 team such as Charlotte or Middle Tennessee (to say nothing of Bowling Green).

Tech continually fights for attention and dollars in a crowded marketplace. Offering a game that has obvious cachet would only help.

A strong turnout was expected Saturday, presumably one that would far surpass the 30,097 that Tech-Bowling Green drew last year. Batt has Georgia State fans to thank for filling his cash box. In terms of opponents that combine revenue potential with a mitigated risk of losing, Georgia State (and Georgia Southern) has to be at the top of the list. (We’ll leave Kennesaw State, which made its FBS debut Saturday, out of the equation for the time being.)

An athletic department that is going to need every dime as it prepares for the new era of directly compensating athletes presumably is taking this into account.

And, on the topic of needing every dime, playing Georgia State at Center Parc Stadium is the least expensive road trip that Tech will ever have. Not only that, but Jackets fans could presumably fill up Center Parc and at least neutralize Georgia State’s home-field advantage.

These benefits fairly dovetail with the scheduling priorities laid out by Batt’s most prominent employee.

While saying that he doesn’t have much input on scheduling, Tech coach Brent Key said this week that “we want to be able to play the best opponents that we can possibly play that create value for Georgia Tech, that create value for our fan base and that create value for recruiting.”

Sounds a little bit like the team that Key’s team was to play Saturday night.

But beyond that, it’s really simple why this game needs to keep going.

A new rivalry would make the sports landscape in Atlanta better and more enjoyable for the teams and their fans.

Beyond being separated by less than two miles, the two schools have so much connection, starting with the legendary Bill Curry, who served as head coach at both schools.

According to Tech, 426 students who graduated from Tech in the past five academic years also had earned or went on to earn degrees from Georgia State, meaning there probably are thousands more in metro Atlanta who hold degrees from both schools and countless more connected to them.

“This should be every year,” said one of those Tech/Georgia State degree holders, Joshua Kite, as he nursed a cold beverage with his wife, Diana, before the game.

Logistically speaking, there’s room in both teams’ schedules. Starting in 2028, Tech has no more than two non-conference games lined up through 2036 (out of a total of four), Georgia and either Notre Dame or Alabama.

Georgia State is committed to either one or two non-conference games 2027-30 (also out of four), according to FBSchedules.com. There is ample room for a tango.

“I don’t think it’s probably practical to think of doing something every year, but certainly periodically, I think it’s more than (feasible),” Cobb said.

Cobb said that he has not had conversations with Batt or other Tech officials about adding games to the series, but the AD didn’t read that as an indication of Tech’s temperature.

It had more to do with the fact that there is still one more game to go in the current contract and that football scheduling has become more of a near-term process than in the past.

We’ll yield the floor to a dual Tech-Georgia State degree holder.

“As an unabashed alumnus of both schools, I love the possibility,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said in a statement to the AJC. “Forbes magazine just listed Atlanta as the most educated city in the United States of America, so it only makes sense that my two alma maters play each other on a frequency in the greatest city on the planet.”

Hear, hear.

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