BC Athletics Power Players Ranking

As part of this blog, I get a lot of gossip sent my way. 99% of it never gets vetted and therefore never published. But certain names and places pop up again and again. To put things in perspective, I decided to create a power players ranking. In different ways, these men have dramatic influence on BC sports. By nature these sorts of rankings are subjective. All of the men below reach far beyond the football field. I ranked them in terms of overall impact and power. Leave your thoughts below.

1. Gene DeFilippo. Director of Athletics, Boston College. At some schools the AD is a figure head, fundraiser and administrator. Not at BC. DeFilippo is very high touch and active on many fronts throughout the school. His backroom politicing helped get BC into the ACC when things looked hopeless. As further proof of the power Gene wields, look no further than Tom O’Brien and Kathy Inglese. At other schools those two coaches would have been untouchable. Yet Gene was able to steer the respective programs in new directions and avoid major alumni or media interference.

2. John Swofford. Commissioner, Atlantic Coast Conference. Swofford and his office dictate things as minute as schedules and referee assignments to critical deals related to television and bowls. BC would not be where we are today if Swofford hadn’t pushed for expansion.


3. Leo Sullivan. Vice President of Human Resources, Boston College. This name might be less familiar to BC sports fans, but Sullivan is certainly a power player in Chestnut Hill. He was very involved with the football coaching search and his office has to clear hires for assistants. They also help negotiate compensation.

4. Mike Dee. Chief Operating Officer, Boston Red Sox. Dee’s primary employer is the Red Sox, but his other role, as head of the Fenway Sports Group, makes him a power player within BC sports. The landmark deal between FSG and BC gave the Sox a foothold in the college marketplace and greatly increased BC's revenue for things like signage and advertising. Dee is spread pretty thin, so he is not intimately involved in all of the BC decisions, but his staff is. They are one of the reasons the past few years have been so lucrative for the school.

5. Dave Brown. VP of Programming and Acquisitions, ESPN. Want to know why BC’s game is on ESPN U at 1 pm vs a Thursday night primetime game? That’s Brown’s call. Brown doesn’t even touch the majority of what BC sports does. But what he does has a huge impact. Appearances on ESPN are invaluable. They change perception among recruits, media and alumni.

6. Father Leahy, SJ. President, Boston College. Leahy isn’t on Eagle Action following practice schedules or recruiting updates, but he is a bigger fan of BC sports than most give him credit for. Rather than make mistakes in an area where he is not an expert, he rightly leans of DeFilippo. And when needed he stands up and provides the voice and direction his role requires (see: ACC Expansion and the battle over the Brighton Campus).

7. Jeff Jagodinski. Head Football Coach, Boston College. At many schools the football coach would be No. 1 on this list. In only his second year, Jags doesn’t have that type of clout nor the internal and external power network that a more tenured coach would have. I also don’t know if Jags cares about the politics around the program. If Jags keeps winning, things will take care of themselves.

8. Jerry York. Head Hockey Coach, Boston College. Like Jags, I don’t know if York even cares where he stands on the BC sports landscape. However, his successes and good nature leave him well liked and hugely popular among alumni.

9. John Mahoney. Director of Undergraduate Admissions, Boston College. Before anyone takes the field at BC, they first must get admitted by the school. Hardcore fans and the media probably overplay the difficulty of the student athlete admissions process. Coaches do get some leeway and get to call in the occasional favor. However, it is not a rubber stamp. Fortunately Admissions works closely with all the teams in order to avoid a fallout similar to the Jim O’Brien fiasco in 1996.

10. Jim Paquette. Associate Athletic Director – Development, Boston College. Upset over the donor-based seating or the cost of a parking spot on Shea? Those are initiatives from Paquette's office. Development doesn’t win or lose games, but it does offset the huge costs associated with running a major athletic department.