I don't care about the politics of the government shutdown. In another forum, another blog or in a conversation, I might share my opinion. For purposes of this blog: I don't give a $hit. What I do care about is BC Football and how the status for our game with Army remains up in the air. Army wants this game to happen. BC wants this game to happen. So it will probably happen and happen this weekend and all the fretting and grandstanding will be quickly forgotten. But I am a BC fan and old enough to know to expect the unexpected. If Army doesn't show up, what is Brad Bates to do...
His first goal would be to get the Army game back on schedule. This minimizes ticket refund issues and complaints about donations and parking spots. The most likely day to play this game would be December 7. However, he would have to have a wink-wink, contract in pencil agreement with Army that if BC somehow won our division and made it to the ACC Championship, we would get out of the Army game altogether. I don't think we are going to make the ACCCG, so if we don't play this weekend, this is probably what will happen.
He needs a contingency though if the shutdown lingers. Who knows how this will play out and if the service academies will even play football once they start missing multiple games. If that happens, multiple schools will be looking to makeup for lost games. I am guessing that BC would try to arrange a last minute game for December 7 with one of those teams. The most logical replacement would probably be Temple. Their October 19 game against Army is in jeopardy. We are a relatively inexpensive trip and there is enough familiarity among the staff and teams that it wouldn't be too daunting to prepare. The only issue might be bad blood over BC poaching Addazio, but Temple could probably be talked into it. And if they won't play, Bates just needs to work the phones to find another team out a game.
If a game cannot be found, BC needs to push hard for a bowl waiver. A forfeit might be more official, but who wants a fake W due to a shutdown? The high road would be BC not taking a win and just asking the NCAA to allow us to attend a bowl game if we get to five wins. We wouldn't be the first exception. And as 13-point favorites, I think we could successfully argue that we lost a very likely qualifying win.
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