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Tuesday, February 17, 2009
2010 football schedule
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Athletics director Dan Radakovich and senior associate athletics director Paul Griffin have gotten into the thick of finding a 12th opponent for the 2010 and 2011 seasons to replace Ole Miss, which pushed the series back to 2019-2020. (I hear Tech has the early edge on a fifth-grader out of Dunwoody with off-the-charts measurables who should give the Jackets a decided edge in those games.)
Larry talked to Radakovich recently. This is what he (Radakovich, not Larry) had to say:
“People will be a little more ready to talk about 10 and 11” now that all the 2009 schedules have been finalized. “We want to make sure to pull this together in a home-and-home circumstance.”
“We’re going to do it as fast as we can. We’re scouring the landscape….Now that the other schedules have been pulled together, it will move up the food chain to, ‘Let’s get this thing done.’”
Most notably, Tech wants to find a BCS team to replace Ole Miss and the school is apparently talking with several schools. I poked around cfbpalace.net, a site devoted to future schedules. It is not the final word - so take things with a grain of salt - but looks fairly authoritative.
In a story Larry wrote during the last football season, Radakovich said his order of preference for its three out of conference games (besides Georgia) are:
1) a nearby SEC team, or a Big East team;
2) a Division I-A team from a non-BCS conference;
3) a Division I-AA team.
Looking at 2010-2011, Tech already has 2) and 3) taken care of with games against Middle Tennessee State (both years) and South Carolina State (2010) and Western Carolina (2011 and, notably, Paul Johnson’s alma mater).
That leaves 1). Larry’s story mentions that Tech at that point was trying to re-schedule a delayed series with Louisville. That, and the schedules of other schools in the Big East and the SEC, leads me to think it would be Tech’s most preferred - and perhaps most likely - opponent.
In the Big East, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse and West Virginia need games, according to fbcpalace.net.
In the SEC, Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, LSU and Tennessee still have openings.
Rutgers would seem like a logical choice, but the Scarlet Knights are apparently looking for a I-AA opponent. Tech is already playing Syracuse 2015 and 2016. UConn and Tech fairly recently finished a series. If Tech is playing the Big East to get in front of alumni, West Virginia doesn’t seem like a great fit.
That leaves Cincinnati, Louisville and Pittsburgh.
In the SEC, Tech plays Alabama 2013 and 2014. Arkansas would seem to be too far. Kentucky looks like it generally plays Louisville and a combination of non-BCS and I-AA teams. LSU already has West Virginia on for 2010 and 2011 and its scheduling pattern doesn’t suggest it wants to add a BCS team. Same for Tennessee, which has Oregon in 2010 and North Carolina in 2011.
It’s possible Tech is looking beyond the SEC and Big East, but it seems like that’s Radakovich’s strong preference. Scheduling a Pac-10 or Big Ten team would create an intriguing matchup, but it wouldn’t do much for Tech at the gate.
Who would you want to see Tech play? Do you have a preference among Cincinnati, Louisville and Pittsburgh?
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