THE FLATS – While Georgia Tech saw multiple successes on the playing surfaces, the Yellow Jackets’ 2025-26 highlights also extended well beyond the competition field.
Georgia Tech’s Total Person Program continued to prepare Yellow Jacket student-athletes for success after graduation, while the completion of the Thomas A. Fanning Student-Athlete Performance Center, hiring of elite-level coaching staffs for two premier Georgia Tech programs and Tech’s student-athlete academic success exemplified achievements beyond competition.
Total Person Program
Continuing its mission to educate and empower student-athletes, the Total Person Program offered an abundance of programming throughout the year to aid student-athletes in leadership development, personal growth and wellness and community service.
With collective efforts across all Georgia Tech teams and staff members, the Yellow Jackets performed approximately 1,200 hours of community service during the 2025-26 season through flagship initiatives and team-led outreach, which included:
- 404 Day – a service initiative established by Georgia Tech inviting multiple universities in the city of Atlanta to combine efforts and help maintain the city everyone calls home. This year’s event took place at Washington Park and Shirley Clarke Franklin Park in partnership with the Atlanta Beltline;
- Michael Isenhour Toy Drive – Georgia Tech celebrated the 25th anniversary of its annual event benefitting the Atlanta Children’s Shelter;
- Atlanta Community Food Bank food drives and volunteer efforts;
- Ronald McDonald House Charities of Atlanta visit;
- Special Olympics Georgia collaborations and volunteer support.
While community outreach is an essential pillar to the Total Person Program, student-athletes were also offered tools and programming to aid in their future successes, including: annual career fair, career accelerator series, lunch and learns involving career development topics, networking events and resume review workshops.
Facility Renovations and Enhancements
Culminating nearly a decade of planning and two-and-a-half years of construction, Georgia Tech officially opened the Thomas A. Fanning Student-Athlete Performance Center in May.
The state-of-the-art 100,000 square foot facility is dedicated to elevating the performance of Georgia Tech student-athletes with specifically-designed spaces for strength and conditioning, sports medicine and nutrition, as well as Tech’s first-ever sports science lab.
In addition to the completion of the Fanning Center, Georgia Tech athletics announced the completed design for the upcoming $70 million renovation to Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field. The renovation, part of the Full Steam Ahead initiative, includes the installation of 12,500 chairback seats, new handrails and wider aisles in designated sections, a new, state-of-the-art videoboard and a new, state-of-the-art sound system.
Georgia Tech continues to enhance the fan environment and announced new gameday experiences for the upcoming 2026 football season at Bobby Dodd Stadium with the West Festival Club (available to season ticket members with seat locations on the west side of Bobby Dodd Stadium) and Wreck Deck. Both first-of-its-kind gameday experiences at Bobby Dodd Stadium will offer exclusive dining options, dedicated entrances and climate-controlled indoor spaces equipped so fans don’t miss any of the action on the field.
Championship Caliber Coaches
The 2025-26 season saw the addition of a pair of championship caliber coaches to its roster in the hiring of men’s basketball head coach Scott Cross and men’s golf head coach Ryan Hybl.
In March, Cross was announced as Tech’s 16th men’s basketball head coach in program history. A proven winner and builder of programs, Cross comes to The Flats with 19 years of head coaching experience, having amassed 350 career wins. He has led teams to seven conference championships (four regular-season and three tournament), eight postseason berths and 14 winning seasons. A three-time coach of the year, Cross has produced 10 20-win seasons in all as a head coach, including the last five-straight.
Georgia Tech golf ushered in a new era in May with the announcement of Hybl as the program’s fifth head coach. Hybl, who replaced long-time head coach Bruce Heppler following his retirement, carries 17 years of head coaching experience from Oklahoma, where he led the Sooners to 51 tournament victories, including the 2017 National Championship. A native of Colbert, Ga., Hybl returns home to become the first head coach in Georgia Tech athletics history that won a national title as a head coach at the highest level of NCAA competition before his/her arrival on The Flats.
Academic Success
Our student-athletes continue to excel academically and raise the bar every semester. As announced in June’s academic release, the Yellow Jackets posted a 3.24 mean grade point average during the 2026 spring semester, marking the fourth-straight semester Georgia Tech’s student-athletes recorded a 3.2 GPA or higher. In total, 77% of student-athletes (327) posted a 3.0 GPA or higher and 64% earned Faculty Honors or Dean’s List recognition.
Sixty-three student-athletes earned their degrees from Georgia Tech in May, while 25 walked across the stage during fall commencement, totaling 88 graduates during the 2025-26 academic year. Amongst the 88 graduates, 14 received their master’s degrees from the Institute.
“Competitive excellence doesn’t just encompass our successes on the playing surface, but also our impact in the community, on The Flats and in the classroom, and I am just as proud and excited about those accomplishments,” Georgia Tech vice president and director of athletics Ryan Alpert said. “Our strides off the field this year have strengthened our connections to the Atlanta community, partners and fan base. We are proud of the achievements this past year and look forward to carrying the momentum into 2026-27.”
This is the third in a series of 2025-2026 year-in-review recaps that will be published over the coming weeks. For more on Tech athletics’ achievements 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.
