Colorado and Georgia Tech have played once. Georgia Tech won 27 to 20 in Boulder on August 29, 2025, when quarterback Haynes King ran for 156 yards and three touchdowns and broke a 20 to 20 tie with a 45 yard run in the final 70 seconds. Tonight’s game at Bobby Dodd Stadium is the second meeting and the first in Atlanta. What makes a two game series worth a page is the season they did not play: 1990, when each program finished the year as national champion and neither got to prove it against the other.
| All time series | Georgia Tech 1, Colorado 0 |
| First meeting | August 29, 2025, Georgia Tech 27 to 20 at Folsom Field |
| Second meeting | September 3, 2026, Bobby Dodd Stadium, Atlanta |
| Shared history | Split the 1990 national championship: Colorado in the AP poll, Georgia Tech in the coaches poll |
| Colorado all time record | 745 wins, 569 losses, 39 ties |
| Georgia Tech all time record | More than 750 wins, four claimed national championships |
The 2025 Game
Georgia Tech went to Boulder as a 3.5 point favourite for a Friday night opener that was the first game in the series and Colorado’s first since the death of Bill McCartney, the coach who won its 1990 title. The Yellow Jackets turned the ball over early and trailed, then leaned on King, who carried four times on the winning drive and faked a pitch before running 45 yards for the touchdown with 1:07 left. Colorado, with two timeouts it never used, reached midfield and threw a Hail Mary that was batted down. Kaidon Salter, in his Colorado debut, threw for 159 yards and a touchdown and ran for another.
Georgia Tech finished 2025 with nine wins. Colorado, having lost Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter and most of its 2024 starters to the NFL, finished with three. Our how to watch page has tonight’s kickoff, channel and streaming details.
1990: The Championship They Split
Colorado went 11, 1 and 1 in 1990 under McCartney, survived the Fifth Down game at Missouri, in which officials gave the Buffaloes an extra down on the winning drive, and beat Notre Dame 10 to 9 in the Orange Bowl on a clipping call that wiped out a Raghib Ismail punt return touchdown. The AP named Colorado champion. Georgia Tech, under Bobby Ross, went 11, 0 and 1 with a tie against North Carolina, beat top ranked Virginia in Charlottesville, and beat Nebraska 45 to 21 in the Citrus Bowl. The coaches poll named Georgia Tech champion by a single vote.
The two never met that season and the argument has been running ever since. Brent Key, Georgia Tech’s coach, said at ACC media days in 2025 that he hoped to settle it. One 27 to 20 win in Boulder is not going to do that, and neither is tonight, but it is the reason a first year series between an ACC team and a Big 12 team was scheduled as a home and home opener in the first place.
The Programs
Colorado has 745 wins, one claimed national championship and 26 conference titles, most of them from the Big Eight and the Buffaloes’ first spell in the Big 12. It returned to the Big 12 in 2024 after thirteen seasons in the Pac-12, and Deion Sanders is in his fourth year. Georgia Tech claims four national championships, the 1990 title and three under John Heisman and William Alexander before the Second World War, and has been in the ACC since 1979. Key is in his fifth season.
What Tonight Decides
Not the 1990 argument. What it decides is whether Georgia Tech, favoured by the feed at about 69 percent, can hold serve at home against a Colorado team that is rebuilding again at quarterback, and whether Colorado has a road win in it before Big 12 play. The series has no third game scheduled. If the two want to settle anything, they will have to arrange it.
The Bottom Line
Georgia Tech leads Colorado 1 to 0 in a series that started in 2025 and resumes tonight in Atlanta. The programs share a 1990 national championship they never played for, Colorado holding the AP title and Georgia Tech the coaches’ by one vote, and Haynes King’s 45 yard run in Boulder is the only result the rivalry has produced so far. Our Thursday schedule has every game tonight.