Technical Tidbits 5/30: CWS selection set for noon on ESPNU, Tech's chances looking dubious

If you are reading this at any time before noon, Georgia Tech's postseason chances are very much still up in the air. Once thought to be just short of guaranteed a slot in the NCAA Tournament, Tech's three-game losing streak in pool play caused the team's chances at making an appearance to wane significantly -- one of the experts in the AJC article above claims that the Jackets' odds are now somewhere in the neighborhood of 30%. I personally feel that 30% is a bit low given the absurdly difficult schedule that the Jackets played this year, but you never know what the selection committee will think. Hopefully those in charge will decide that making it into ACC pool play in the first place is more significant than going 0-3 once they got there.

Just as a bit of follow-up to that, the NCAA actually announced which teams would be hosting the regionals at about 8:30 last night. When it was all said and done, six ACC teams were selected as regional hosts, a number which includes each of the three teams that Tech just lost to in pool play. That seems like a factor which will absolutely work in Tech's favor; if the committee sees FSU, NC State, and Miami as top-16 schools in the country, then those losses look much better. If you add it all up, that means that Tech played 18 games -- 31% of the whole season -- versus teams which are currently hosting regionals. The Jackets even played three additional teams (Coastal Carolina, Western Carolina, and Western Michigan) which won their respective conference titles and are guaranteed NCAA Tournament spots, going 7-0 combined against them. If you throw in ACC champion Clemson, Tech went 9-1 against conference champions. That's pretty impressive.

The time directly following Tech's 11-win 2014 season quelled the "fire Paul Johnson" talk for a while, but a number of folks expect it to heat up tremendously once again if 2016 is anywhere near as ugly as 2016 was. As Matt Fortuna says in the mailbag, the odds of Paul Johnson -- whose contract runs through 2020 -- being terminated are not great. It would take a season even worse than last year and probably some type of unforeseen academic obstacle to provoke the Tech boosters and Athletic Department enough to jettison Johnson so soon. Unfortunately, the sirens will be singing their anti-option song as soon as Tech faces its first fourth-down of the year. Please, please, please revert back to the 2014 version of this offense. I don't have the stomach for the Internet rage or the physical toll that going 3-9 takes on me.