Response on expansion

Bryan, my first response is the same - great, now Miami & VaTech along with FSU. However, I have another side. I agree that we will see more losses, but we can only hope that it brings up the level of ACC and Tech recruiting (of course we all said that when FSU came in and we haven't beat them yet). I hate to say it, but Georgia Tech football (and probably 95% of all other programs) will see success come in cycles. We saw difficult times in the mid/late 80's, then hit the pinnacle in 90. We've had up and down periods since. We all have high expectations for the program because we have tasted victory in the past. Being a "luvable loser" is only good if you are a Cubs fan and have never tasted success. It helps you cope. Tech fans have had national championships, we have the 3rd best bowl record in the country, we have been to final fours and college world series. We expect to win and that makes it frustrating to be a fan, because we will never be FSU in football, Stanford in baseball, Duke in basketball. We may find a few years of sustained success but competing year-in and year-out for national championships in a sport has not been Tech and has not been most other schools either. Maybe baseball has seen highest level of sustained success, but we have yet to win the whole ball of wax. Let's face it, success is hard.

So, I see Miami, FSU and VaTech as guarded positives. While Gailey's X's and O's coaching is in question and undecided, I think he is a good recruiter. Maybe with the right players, his schemes will work better. I'm not into making excuses, but let's remember that we did lose 10 players, including Hollings, Hargrove and let's not forget Greg Gathers either. Where might we be with those guys? Enough what if. Whether we like it or not, hello Miami, hello VaTech, and maybe hello Boston College.

Actually, I am very disappointed we are not playing FSU. I am to the point where I want to keep trying until we break through. Now we have to leave it hanging for awhile. Not happy about that.

On another note, it appears the Hoops teams will not compete in a home-and-away 2 game series with every ACC Team. There will be fewer ACC hoops games, playing some teams only once a year. Evidently Hewitt was for this format as he felt all the ACC teams would just beat up on each other every year and the mid-level ACC teams would not get those bubble bids to the dance. I have to agree with him about that, but you can't get into the dance by loading up with cupcakes either. But we all know if you can get to that 20 win plateau it helps a lot. That's how a lot of mid-majors have been getting in recently.