May 16, 2006
ATLANTA–Georgia Tech’s season-opening football game against Notre Dame on Sept. 2 will have an 8 p.m. kickoff at Bobby Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant Field and will be nationally televised by ABC, the Atlantic Coast Conference and ABC announced Tuesday.
In addition to national television coverage for the game, Georgia Tech will be the center of the college football world that Saturday as ESPN’s College GameDay will originate from the Tech campus.
Georgia Tech, led by all-America wide receiver Calvin Johnson, is coming off its ninth straight winning season and ninth straight bowl berth with a 7-5 record in 2005, including a 5-3 mark in the ACC, highlighted by wins over Top 10 teams Auburn and Miami.
Notre Dame is expected to be highly ranked in the preseason after finishing the 2005 season with a 9-3 record and a No. 9 ranking.
College GameDay, featuring host Chris Fowler and analysts Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso, will be making its second visit to Georgia Tech. The first time the popular program originated from Bobby Dodd Stadium was on Oct. 24, 1998 as the Yellow Jackets hosted Florida State.
Tech and Notre Dame have played 32 times, but the Irish will be making their first trip to Atlanta since 1980, when the Yellow Jackets tied then-No. 1-ranked Notre Dame, 3-3. The teams have met three times since then as Tech fell at Notre Dame in 1981 (35-3) and 1997 (17-13), then defeated the Irish, 35-28, in the 1999 Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla. The Yellow Jackets will make a return trip to Notre Dame Stadium in 2007.
