Wednesday, January 23, 2019

The value of the Red Bandanna game

As you may have seen, BC moved the game against Kansas from Saturday to Friday, September 13. Long story short, this was always BC and ESPN's intention, but Kansas only agreed to it this week, hence it was changed just after the official ACC schedule announcement earlier this month. Friday games can be inconvenient for fans attending the game, but BC and ESPN wanted a BC Friday home game because the "Red Bandanna" game has become important to both the school and the company.

By having a locked in date and time, BC can prepare uniforms, special merchandise and work closely with the Crowther family. ESPN can use a whole week of shows -- especially close to the anniversary of September 11 -- to promote their own award winning feature and pump the ratings for an otherwise ho-hum matchup. It also helps fulfill the ACC's Friday night contractual commitment.

Every year the Red Bandanna game has been a great showcase for BC. I always worry about it feeling exploitative, but clearly the Crowther Family embraces it. Ideally it would have been better to tie things up before the ACC released schedules, but these things happen. The Kansas game was going to be an iffy ticket driver on a Saturday. Moving it to Friday alone wouldn't help, but making it a special game might.

UPDATE: BC wants to make it clear that nothing has been decided about the Red Bandanna game. ESPN and other BC folks strongly feel it will be this game.

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