Interesting article about Georgia Tech's last days in the SEC

quote:

---

On Jan. 24, 1964, the direction of Georgia Tech athletics and the fortunes of one of the South’s premier collegiate institutions were forever changed. Head football coach and athletic director Bobby Dodd and President Edwin Harrison were at the annual SEC coaches meetings at the Americana Motor Hotel in downtown Atlanta. It was on this day they would pull Georgia Tech out of the Southeastern Conference.

Over the years, many have debated the reason for Tech’s departure from the SEC. Some will argue that Tech athletics had begun to slip and were no longer able to compete with the other conference teams. Others will point to a running feud with the University of Alabama as the cause. Still others will suggest that Tech wanted to be an independent all along, hoping to become the Notre Dame of the South. Tech was losing a lot of revenue generated from TV and bowl rights because of conference sharing rules. As an independent, Tech would be able to keep all the money it earned.

The true reason was over something called the 140 Rule — and Bobby Dodd’s determination to have it changed.

The SEC 140 Rule placed yearly caps on football and basketball scholarships at 45 and limited the total number of scholarships each school could offer to 140. Even with the normal attrition expected from academic dropouts and other issues, simple math shows that if a school recruited its full allotment of players each year it would be over the 140 maximum.

Instead of recruiting a smaller number of athletes each year to manage the 140 maximum, many SEC schools would simply cut the scholarships of players who had not performed to expectations. Atlanta’s afternoon newspaper, The Atlanta Journal, reported “Dodd’s chief complaint with the 140 has been the alleged practice of some schools ‘running off’ recruiting mistakes to make room for new signees.”

Dodd believed if he and his staff recruited an athlete out of high school based on his talents, the scholarship should be in place for the duration of the player’s time at Tech. It should not be pulled later due to a lack of perceived performance. In his autobiography, Dodd’s Luck, the coach stated his position. “We’d live with 10 boys a year, 20, 30, 40, 50, we don’t give a damn how many boys you let us take. But don’t tell us we gotta run ’em off.” As a result, Dodd was recruiting only 35 or so scholarship players a year while other schools were bringing in 45.

The State of Tech Athletics in 1964

Tech was an upper-tier member of the SEC in 1964 and had been since the conference’s beginning. It was a charter member in 1933 as well as a founding member in 1922 of the old Southern Conference that preceded it.

Jesse Outlar wrote in his Jan. 22, 1964, Atlanta Constitution sports column, “Tech is an elite member of the league, a famous name nationally known for high standards in the classroom and in athletic events. The SEC does not want to lose Tech.”

Of course football was the premier sport. Since 1951, Tech football was 6-3-1 versus Tennessee, 7-2-2 against Florida, 6-6-1 against Auburn, 7-6 against Alabama and 9-4 against state rival Georgia. Tech football had been ranked in the top 20 each of these years and had won the national championship in 1952.

Tech also had Dodd, a superior coach and recruiter. Dodd was renowned for exemplifying class and style on and off the field. Georgia Tech fans and alumni loved and trusted him as coach and athletic director.

Dodd believed the 140 Rule was putting Georgia Tech at a major recruiting disadvantage. He must have wanted the rule changed so badly he was willing to gamble the Institute’s athletics future over it. He had discussed this situation fully with his athletic board and with Tech’s president, Edwin Harrison. They reportedly agreed that if the 140 Rule was not abolished at the 1964 meetings, Tech would leave the conference.

Dodd had formally called for the abolishment of the 140 Rule two years earlier. The change had some support but eventually failed. He came closer in 1963. This time SEC commissioner Bernie Moore sponsored a motion to change the rule, but the issue was narrowly defeated in a 6-6 vote.

The Atlanta Constitution made reference to this earlier vote in its Jan. 24, 1964, paper. “Last winter, Alabama’s Paul Bryant had voted with Tech and five other league athletic directors to lift the 140 Rule. But the following day, Alabama president Dr. Frank Rose switched ’Bama’s support in the other direction to give the 140 measure another year of life.”

The league did drop the yearly total of signees from 55 to 45. After another year of politicking, Dodd is said to have been confident going into the 1964 SEC meetings that the 140 Rule finally would be altered.

However, months earlier a damaging headline from the July 21, 1963, Atlanta Constitution read: “Georgia Tech to Quit SEC Next January.” Articles like this and Dodd’s constant drumbeat to terminate the 140 Rule were beginning to ruffle feathers and generate independent theories. The Atlanta Journal also fueled the fire: “The 140 Rule has not been the only reason Tech has made eyes at independent status. Dodd has long been intrigued by the possibilities of a largely intersectional schedule.”

Wednesday, January 22

The SEC meetings were a three-day affair. Wednesday would be a day for settling into the hotel and the typical meet-and-greet sessions. Thursday would be full of meetings pertaining to rule changes. Topics would be discussed behind closed doors by coaches, athletic directors and school representatives. These meetings would result in nonbinding recommendations to each member institution’s president. On Friday, the presidents would formally vote on all issues on the agenda.

The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution both reported that the SEC executive committee planned to introduce legislation to lift the 140 Rule. It was expected to pass by a narrow margin at the meeting of school presidents on Friday. Dodd apparently was growing confident with each bit of good news.

SEC commissioner Bernie Moore told The Atlanta Journal, “I don’t think the league is so sold on the rule that it would be willing to see Tech go just to keep it.”

Thursday, January 23

On the morning of the rule-change debate, Dodd was quoted in The Atlanta Journal. “If the Southeastern does not throw out the 140 Rule, then I will recommend to our president and to our athletic board that we get out of the conference. This is not an ultimatum or anything resembling an ultimatum. The fact is that this is a bad rule, and we cannot live with it any longer.”

Sports columnist Outlar quoted an SEC delegate as saying, “I know some athletic directors consider Tech’s position as a challenge. If we had voted a few weeks ago, there’s no doubt that the rule would have been rescinded. Now I’m truly convinced that the league won’t change the rule. I know some schools have changed their votes in the last few weeks.”

Some wondered if Tech was just looking for an excuse to leave the conference. Benny Marshall’s column in The Birmingham News reported that one observer said, “What it sounds like to me is that somebody is saying, ‘If you don’t play like I want to play, I’ll pick up my marbles and go home.’” Marshall quoted another, “Coach Dodd wants out. Dodd might figure that the hostility he can arouse with this approach gives him ammunition for doing what he badly wants to do, go independent.”

Marshall concluded, “Thus is the water made muddy, and the feeling grew last night that removal of the limit — which might have passed — might now be doomed to failure because a great deal of anger has moved in behind the general good humor.”

---