In professional sports, rings are limited to the eventual champions. That's not the case in college athletics, where jewelry is distributed to lots of teams: conference champions, bowl game winners, and the like. And even teams that do not win bowl games.
Georgia Tech on Tuesday unveiled rings celebrating its 2024 campaign. Here they are:
Summer Ice 🥶 #StingEm🐝 pic.twitter.com/vxYsEOnQ4G
— Georgia Tech Football (@GeorgiaTechFB) May 27, 2025
On one side, Georgia Tech marked its trip to the 2024 Birmingham Bowl -- a game the Yellow Jackets lost, 35-27. On the other, Georgia Tech memorialized the club's 5-0 record at Bobby Dodd Stadium. The Yellow Jackets defeated Georgia State, VMI, Duke, Miami and NC State to record that perfect home season, its first since 1999.
On the interior, Georgia Tech marked its wins over Florida State and Miami. It was the first time the Jackets beat the Seminoles and the Hurricanes in the same season for the first time since 2008. The win over Miami, ranked No. 4 at the time, snapped Tech's 13-game losing streak to AP top-5 opponents, dating back to 2009. And though they ultimately finished 2-10, Florida State was ranked No. 10 when Georgia Tech beat them to open the season in Dublin, Ireland. Even Georgia Tech's 1990 national championship team didn't beat two AP top-10 foes.
The 7-6 record also marked Tech's first back-to-back winning seasons since 2013-14.
Accomplishing things that hadn't been done since 1999 (the undefeated home season), 2009 (the AP top-5 win), 2008 (the wins over FSU and Miami) and 2014 are definitely worth remembering. Then again, not a lot of other programs would memorialize a year that ended a game over .500, with a loss to their arch-rival (even though it did take eight overtimes), and a bowl loss.
But Georgia Tech felt judged their season bling-worthy, and that's all that matters.