June 10, 2009
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech and Kansas, which have not met in football since the 1948 Orange Bowl, have agreed to a two-year series beginning in 2010.
The Yellow Jackets and Jayhawks will meet in 2010 at Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, Kan., with a tentative date of Sept. 11. Kansas comes to Atlanta in 2011 to play at Bobby Dodd Stadium, with a tentative date of Sept. 17.
“Coach (Mark) Mangino and his staff have built Kansas into an annual contender in the Big 12 Conference,” Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson said. “I know there are high expectations for them this season and next year’s game in Lawrence will be a challenge, to say the least.”
The only previous meeting between Georgia Tech and Kansas came on Jan. 1, 1948 in the Orange Bowl. The Bobby Dodd-coached Yellow Jackets won the game, 20-14, in a contest that was decided after the Jayhawks fumbled just inches from the goal line in the closing moments.
Georgia Tech has not played an opponent from the Big 12 Conference – or the old Big Eight Conference – since beating Baylor at home in 1993. The 2010 game will be Tech’s first road game against a Big 12 team since playing Baylor in Waco in 1992.
The Yellow Jackets have not played a regular season game West of the Mississippi River since opening the 2003 season at BYU.
Kansas went 8-5 overall, 4-4 in Big 12 play last fall. The Jayhawks beat Minnesota, 42-21, in the Insight Bowl in Tempe, Ariz.
Georgia Tech’s remaining 2010 non-conference schedule includes home games against South Carolina State and Middle Tennessee, and a road game with traditional rival Georgia. In 2011, the Yellow Jackets will host Western Carolina and Georgia, and will play at Middle Tennessee.