Clemson – Georgia Tech rivalry

The Clemson–Georgia Tech football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Clemson Tigers football team of Clemson University and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team of Georgia Tech. The Tigers and Yellow Jackets first met in 1898, and have played annually since 1983.

Series history


Through 2011, the teams have played 77 times, with Tech leading the series 49–26–2. The teams first met in 1898, when Clemson's third-year program defeated Georgia Tech 23–0 to finish with a 3–1 record. The following year, the Tigers beat Tech again, 41–5. In 1904, Georgia Tech lured away Clemson's head coach, John Heisman (namesake of the Heisman Trophy), with the prospect of $450 pay raise ($0 adjusted for inflation), which was a 25% salary increase.

In 1977, Georgia Tech, a year before it joined the ACC, decided to end its series with Clemson. George Bennett, a Clemson athletics booster, was determined to preserve the game, as the trip to Atlanta provided a unique experience for the Tigers players and fanbase who had not been to a bowl game. In what was supposed to be the final game in Atlanta, upon Bennett's suggestion, thousands of Clemson supporters paid their expenses with two-dollar bills stamped with the shape of a tiger paw. This demonstrated the large amount of money that the Clemson fanbase regularly pumped into the local economy because of the game.

The series resumed in 1983 when Georgia Tech began playing football in the ACC. This has become one of the most competitive rivalries in the ACC with Georgia Tech leading the series 16-15 in the ACC era. These games have often been decided at the last minute and by small margins. Nine of the games between 1996 and 2006 were decided by five points or less.

When the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), of which both schools are members, reorganized in 2005 to form divisions for the sport of football, Clemson and Georgia Tech were designated as cross-division rivals. This means that their football teams meet every season, unlike their other non-divisional conference opponents, which are played less often on a rotational basis.

In the 2009 season, both teams won their respective divisions of the ACC. For the first time in the series' history, the two teams met for a second time in a season on December 5, 2009 in the ACC Championship Game. The game marked the first ever December meeting between the two teams, as well as the first post-season meeting. It was also the first time the series has been played outside of Atlanta or Clemson since 1899. Georgia Tech won 39–34, however the NCAA later vacated the last 3 games of Georgia Tech's 2009 season along with the ACC Championship due to several starters being ruled ineligible.

In the 2011 season, both teams started 6–0. The match-up was highly anticipated until Georgia Tech stumbled losing two straight games, at Virginia and at Miami (FL). The game was 6–2 Georgia Tech hosting 8–0 #5 Clemson. This game was the 2011 Georgia Tech homecoming game. Georgia Tech upset the Tigers 31–17. After the game, Clemson fell out of the top ten and Georgia Tech became the #22 team in the country.

Game results
''Clemson victories are colored ██ orange. Georgia Tech victories are colored ██ gold. Ties are white.''