re: Has there ever been a costlier decision in college sports than GT leaving the SEC?

Read all the posts up to this point and Tennessee fan, Harvey Wallbanger, got it right through posting the link to the AJC article about Tech's departure.

At the crux of Tech’s exit was the so-called 140 Rule. SEC schools — there were 12, Tulane included — were allowed 140 scholarships for football and men’s basketball; football programs were allowed to sign as many 45 recruits per season. Tech coach Bobby Dodd believed that other teams were overrecruiting, pushing aside underperforming players to clear scholarship space for newer ones.

Said Taz Anderson, the Atlanta entrepreneur who was a captain under Dodd when the Yellow Jackets were based in the SEC: “Coach Dodd would not run you off if you met the part he required. If you went to class and did the work, he’d get you a degree.”

Basically, Georgia Tech left the SEC in 1964 due to controversy over the conference's lax regulation of recruiting and scholarships. Georgia Tech athletic director and head football coach Bobby Dodd had lobbied the league to establish rules prohibiting several practices, particularly the oversigning of players by Alabama coach Bear Bryant.

Both Tech and Tulane wanted the schollie's limit reduced to 140 (football & basketball combined), but the SEC refused.