Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Thoughts on the Football schedule

The ACC released its football schedules and there were a few surprises for BC. Here is the schedule.

Sep. 3 -- Georgia Tech (Dublin)
Sep. 10 -- at UMass (Foxborough)
Sep. 17 -- at Virginia Tech
Sep. 24 -- Wagner
Oct. 1 -- Buffalo
Oct. 7 -- Clemson
Oct. 22 -- Syracuse
Oct. 29 -- at NC State
Nov. 5 -- Louisville
Nov. 11 -- at Florida State
Nov. 19 -- UConn
Nov. 26 -- at Wake Forest

Friday Night Lights
BC has ESPN to thank for two Friday night games. Contractually the ACC owes ESPN Friday night games and BC proved to be a good host when playing a top team last year. The ratings were good and the BC-centric SportsCenter was a nice touch. I expect BC and ESPN will do the same thing when Clemson comes to town. As for being the road team in a Friday game later in the season, that is probably a compromise between the ACC, FSU and ESPN. The 'Noles probably did not want to waste a marquis game on Friday night and ESPN probably wanted a decent TV draw. This is not going away, so I hope BC starts to make a thing out of hosting and playing in these games.

I hate moving the Syracuse game
This was supposed to be a Thanksgiving Weekend tradition. Since its inception one or both teams have been bad and the games have lacked any sizzle. By playing earlier in the year, perhaps both teams will still be in contention and the students will be on campus. But I don't think moving it really helps either team. The way to make fans care is to turn it into a real tradition. Very few things are consistent about BC Football year to year. While forced, I think ending the season with Syracuse every year was a step in the right direction.

This schedule lends itself to a bounce back year
BC had plenty of bad luck last year, but you cannot ignore a winless conference slate. Given how bad the team was, I can't call any game a lock. Yet looking at that schedule, you see how things can get better next year. The non-conference schedule is very easy. BC gets plenty of time to prepare for Georgia Tech's unique offense. Moving Syracuse and playing UConn late means that there are winnable games spread throughout the year.

18 comments:

blockparty said...

9-3. don't call it a comeback.

mod34b said...
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chicagofire1871 said...

One of the problems BC faces is that due to the lack of success of the team, fans are more interested in who we play than who we are. If BC was as good as FSU/Clemson, it wouldn't much matter who we played at Alumni because you get to see BC!

mod34b said...
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Napolean Bonaparte said...

Sorry if this is old news - from a Michigan site dealing with their AD search: "the lead consultants on the search, will be .... Gene DeFilippo, senior executive director at Turnkey and former athletic director at several schools including Boston College, Villanova and Kentucky. The firm will be paid a fee of $150,000 plus expenses."

chicagofire1871 said...

Mod, Howard sucked and Wagner probably won't be much better, but as long as an FCS counts, BC and most FBS schools will do it.

I suspect the Clemson fans will get up for Troy and South Carolina State. That's probably worse than UCONN and Buffalo.

Point is, if BC was the draw instead of the opponent, none of this hand wringing would matter.

JBQ said...

@Napoleon Bonaparte: The search being conducted by GDF adds one more bizarre touch to the current state of affairs. Bates will be one of the finalists. We just have to wait to see what happens.

mod34b said...
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mod34b said...
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Hoib said...

Wagner
I really can’t believe this is happening. I’m from S.I., and have been to some of their games. Maybe they play in front of 5000 people, it’s so much more like HS then college football. Truly is shocking. FCS games must be done away w/!

mod34b said...
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Kash86 said...

The schedule this year sucks. Bottom line, no way to sugar coat it. UMass/Buffalo are bad MAC teams. Wagner is a bad 1AA team. Uconn stinks and statistically had almost as bad an offense as we did last year (yet they play in the AAC so they got to a bowl).

There is very little to look forward to on the schedule.

However, 5 years down the road, if Addazio is still here, and we look back on 2016, nobody is going to remember the awful schedule, they'll remember that BC won 8-9 games (assuming that happens). In the here and now its awful. Season tickets will suffer as will general attendance, but on a macro level, it will just get BC a respectable record and help the macro perception.

Historically, look at some of BC'S OOC slates from the time Obrien was here.
2000 (Army, Navy, CT, ND)
2001 (Army, Navy, Stanford, ND)
2002 (CT, Stan, CMU, ND)
2003 (PSU, CT, Ball State, ND)
2004 (Ball State, PSU, UMass, Wake)
2005 (BYU, Army, Ball State)
2006 (CMU, BYU, Maine, Buffalo)

None of these OOC schedules are good (remember Army, Navy, Stanford all stunk back then). But nobody remembers or cares, all people remember is that TOB won 9 games a year and won bowl games, thats the perception.

Addazio and Bates are trying to change the perception and 5 years from now nobody will remember that BC played a bunch of garbage teams like uconn and wagner, it is what it is but thats the strategy they have to take quite frankly.

Guido said...

Unknown - I find it difficult to understand what you mean by -"Addazio and Bates" are trying to change the perception !!! What the hell does that mean ??? And I will say as a fan - that playing Army or Navy was a treat having been to both West Point and Annapolis for games. Please do not try to compare Wagner , Howard , Buffalo etc to the Academies !! When those games were scheduled in advance , no one knew how strong the Academies would be in 1 , 2 or 3 years. I am not so sure that people understand the implication of BC playing Maine and Howard last year . If BC had won 6 games (included in those wins Howard and Maine), they would not have been eligible for a bowl since only ONE FCS win would have counted in the tally. But again - PLEASE EXPLAIN - " TRYING TO CHANGE PERCEPTION ".Thank you in advance !!!

Hoib said...

G

W/ u on this. Wagner should be playing Howard not us. The fact that we have those kind of games two years in a row is embarrassing to me as a BC fan. The NCAA needs to step up here and stop this fiasco. The Big10, and PAC 12 have stopped so should the rest of the power 5. The TV cos. who are footing the bill can't be happy either.

Joseph said...

Truth is the schedule is not what we would all like. Also, truth is M#4 had nitng bu negative posts.. (what did he say about Hoib)

Knucklehead said...

The schedule has sucked for years. It is not going to change because 9 of the games are predetermined by being in the ACC. And like every other Power 5 team they need ensure 3 wins and in order for Boston College to be ensured of 2-3 wins they have to schedule horrible teams.

The problem is schools that have national title hopes legitimately, SEC programs, Big 10 programs and Pac 12 programs don't want to play a team that is smarter than them and traditionally tougher than then . . . usually less skilled though . . . because there is agood chance they will lose. And the Big 12 won't play a Catholic School. They cannot pronounce the word Catholic.

Boston College needs to recruit some competent kids with talent and develop them into good players.

Tom OBrien is available Brad. I don't like him personally but he has been successful at Boston College. I bet he wants back in and I think he would be willing to listen.

Hoib said...

Joe

He hate me

mod34b said...
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