THE FLATS – Sparked by competitive success, Georgia Tech athletics’ brand recognition skyrocketed across the globe in 2025-26.
Most notable among the metrics that illustrate the Yellow Jackets’ continued brand expansion is their earned media during the 2025 football season, when Tech opened 8-0 (for the first time since 1966), reached as high as No. 7 in the national rankings (its highest regular-season ranking since 2009), won nine regular-season games and finished in the top 25 nationally (both for the first time since 2014). Over the course of the 13-game season, Georgia Tech had a total earned media reach of 44.8 billion, or more than five times Earth’s total population (earned media is public exposure or brand attention that is not paid for or controlled directly by an entity, including news coverage and social media dialog).
The football program’s earned media reach in 2025 translated to an ad equivalency value (the figure that the same amount of exposure would cost in paid advertising) of $200.4 million for Georgia Tech.
Tech football’s earned media reach and ad equivalency value have grown exponentially since head coach Brent Key took the reins, with earned media reach up 276% and ad equivalency value up 1,328% since 2022.
The earned media metrics were buoyed by Tech football’s viewership numbers in 2025. In 10 games that were televised on Nielsen-rated networks during the ’25 season, Georgia Tech football totaled 33.8 million viewers, which ranked No. 2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference and in the top 20 nationally in total viewership. Like its earned media numbers, the Yellow Jackets’ viewership has surged in recent seasons, up 257% since 2023.
Georgia Tech’s efforts and its fans’ loyal engagement in the social media space have also played a large part in the overall growth of the Yellow Jackets’ brand. Year-over-year achievements include:
- Georgia Tech baseball Instagram followers – up 41.2%
- Georgia Tech softball Instagram followers – up 14.8%
- Georgia Tech football Facebook/Instagram/X followers – up 13.4%
- Georgia Tech athletics Facebook/X/Instagram followers – up 10.3%
- Georgia Tech men’s basketball Facebook/Instagram/X followers – up 7.9%
- Georgia Tech volleyball Instagram followers – up 7.1%
“As our teams continue to achieve great competitive success, we will prioritize growing the Georgia Tech brand, locally, nationally and globally,” Georgia Tech vice president and director of athletics Ryan Alpert said. “We’re grateful to our fans – those who have followed Georgia Tech for a long time and those that are new to Yellow Jacket fandom – for loyally following, seeking out and engaging with Tech content. Every time you watch the Jackets play on TV, read an article and engage with a social post, you are telling the world – including future Yellow Jackets and media decision-makers – that Georgia Tech has one of the most loyal, active and lucrative fanbases in all of college athletics. Thank you for all that you do to expand the Georgia Tech brand across the world!”
This is the fourth in a series of year-in-review recaps highlighting Georgia Tech athletics’ achievements in 2025-26. For more on Tech athletics’ success and momentum heading into 2026-27, be sure to follow the Yellow Jackets on X, Facebook and Instagram.
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.
