D-I Round 2: Minnesota at Georgia Tech

(Photo by Kevin Schoonover)

ATLANTA – It’s a beautiful day at Roe Stamps Field on the campus of Georgia Tech.

You know it’s a nice day when then the walkers using the track circling the field ignore the signs and saunter behind the end lines during live action.

On the real field, this would have been a nice matchup between the Minnesota offense and Georgia Tech defense.

D-I Round 2: Minnesota at Georgia Tech | https://t.co/QeLbUsSFCI #virtualmcla20
— MCLA Tournament '21 (@MCLA_Tournament) April 8, 2020

On the virtual field, it’s a battle of two big student bodies. The Golden Gophers boast nearly 51,000 enrollees while the Ramblin’ Wreck are a shade over 32K.

There’s a chance for some big numbers here.

With that said, No. 7 Georgia and No. 26 UConn couldn’t crack quadruple digits in their first-round matchup.

The Jackets took the comfy, 22.6 percentage point win, but it was just 603 votes out of 984 total. Early returns on the other second round matchups indicate that won’t get it done.

Similarly, No. 23 Minnesota won a relatively low-vote affair against No. 10 Santa Clara. The Gophers took 488-of-897 votes for an 8.8 percentage point win.

The challenge is to boost the numbers. The one that does it better will get to the quarterfinals and grab their coach a staff shirt.