Tech trying to complete football schedule

By Ken Sugiura

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The ACC is now waiting on Georgia Tech.

With Florida State having finalized its non-conference schedule Wednesday, the league now needs Tech to complete its non-conference slate in order to release the schedule.

“Hopefully, we’re getting to a conclusion, but it’s been pretty frustrating,” associate athletic director Wayne Hogan said Wednesday.

It was thought that the FSU schedule, which was rendered incomplete by West Virginia’s late cancellation of its Sept. 8 game in Tallahassee, was the remaining piece of the puzzle. FSU announced Wednesday that it had found a replacement in Savannah State, which will receive $475,000 to visit Tallahassee on Sept. 8.

However, Tech’s agreement to play Virginia Tech on Labor Day set in motion its own rearrangement that athletic director Dan Radakovich and associate AD Ryan Bamford had not solved as of Wednesday.

Tech was scheduled to play Middle Tennessee State on Sept. 8. However, with a short week of preparation following the Sept. 3 game in Blacksburg, Va., the school preferred to face an FCS opponent. Coach Paul Johnson is undoubtedly cognizant of Virginia Tech’s 2010 loss, five days after losing to Boise State on Labor Day, to James Madison.

However, with the rest of the ACC’s schedule virtually locked into place, and many other conferences’ schedules completed, Tech’s options were limited.

“You can’t start to shuffle anybody around, because nobody wants to move,” Hogan said.

Tech has been working with the ACC to find such a partner. Hogan said the school had narrowed it to a couple of possibilities and was waiting on them to make a decision.

“We’re close,” he said. “I hope we can announce something pretty soon.”

Tech’s game against Middle Tennessee will be played later in the season. The Yellow Jackets’ game against Southeastern Louisiana, which was supposed to take place on the opening weekend, has been pushed off the schedule.