BC headed to Dallas for bowl game with Boise State

If you had asked me about BC's bowl destination Sunday morning, I don't think I ever would have selected the Servpro Bowl in Dallas vs Boise State. Yet here we are, getting ready to play the Broncos on December 26 in the old Cotton Bowl. All things considered, this was the best outcome of all the undesirable bowls that were in the mix for BC.

First the bad. This is a made for TV game on December 26. There is no history. There will be little fan support. Barring some viral moment, no one beyond BC and Boise State fans will remember it.

The good? It is more BC Football against a legitimate opponent in a real city. Detroit and Shreveport were on the table and real options. This game feels like the Rose Bowl when you consider the alternative of going to Shreveport again. 

Boise State opened as a 2.5 point favorite. I will have more on the matchup in the weeks ahead. I will also post on the ACC's politics and BC's role. 

Now let's win this thing. Addazio keeps claiming progress. Time for him to show it. 

Playoffs are real! What does it mean for BC?

The college presidents finally approved a four-team football playoff. It has been a long time coming and some details are still to be determined, but this will change the college postseason for the better. I also think that this system benefits a school like BC. First the good news.


1. We don't have to be perfect. Under the old system BC needed to go undefeated and hope that only one other BCS team also went undefeated. The polling system always favored the traditional powers. There will still be plenty of bias in the selection committee, but supposedly there will be a formula that incorporates win-loss, strength of schedule, and conference championships. In this world a 11-2 ACC Champion BC team might earn a playoff spot. This also means that any great BC team (13-0, 12-1) will surely be in.


2. We still have a seat at the table. The ACC has been damaged in this process. It's the Big Four and us. That will hurt in recruiting and in rankings. But at least we are still at the big table. The ACC will have its turn on the selection committee and we can still pitch access to the playoffs to recruits and fans. 


3. An expanded playoff is coming. Everyone is quick to point out that the Presidents don't want playoff creep and that it will be a four-team format for 12 years. I think it will stay at four teams for five years at the most. There will be too much public pressure to expand and too much money to ignore. An eight-team playoff is even better for BC financially and access wise.


4. The ACC will be rewarded for playing nine conference games. Strength of schedule is a factor in the selection. With the ACC playing nine games, we will get a SOS benefit that other conferences don't when they play patsies. This also might have BC rethink its annual FCS game. 


This is the bad news. 


1. The ACC is still poachable. Florida State or Clemson might have an easier path to the playoff from the ACC, but there is no built in advantage like there might have been under a strict conference champion provision. As long as other conferences offer more money, schools might leave.


2. There will be a human element to the selection committee. There will be bias and subjectivity. BC will always face an uphill battle against the power brokers. I know that we will be the "5th" team at least once in my lifetime. 


3. The bowl system lives on (sort of). The old boys running the playoff protected their cronies at the bowls. They're less important and will face new financial pressure, but the bowls still live on. And their distaste for BC and our travel reputation will not go away. So this means that is will always be playoff or bust for BC.

When did the BC fanbase's perception change on bowls?

BC's not in a bowl this year and I sort of miss it. Bad BC football is better than no BC football. While I think that most BC fans would watch any BC bowl game, I think any pride or passion related to our string of bowls is long gone. This morning I started to wonder when that changed.

Even if we didn't travel in droves, BC fans used to get excited about bowl games. I think they lost their luster to us as the number of bowls increased and some of the destinations and opponents left a lot to be desired. That travel apathy then started to hurt BC's reputation, which then started a vicious cycle of getting sent to even worse bowl games.

If you go back through BC's bowl timeline, I think things turned south with Detroit. Let's look back and see if you agree...

1940 Cotton Bowl
1941 Sugar Bowl
1943 Orange Bowl

These three were the pinnacle of BC's Bowl history. It was such a different time and place, I don't think fan interest is relevant to BC's current football program.

1982 Tangerine Bowl
1983 Liberty Bowl
1985 Cotton Bowl

The Flutie era bowl games are also of a different time and place. While not as prestigious as the BC Bowls in the 1940s, we still faced elite programs and had one of the most exciting offenses in college football. Most BC fans cared about these games.

1986 Hall of Fame Bowl

The Hall of Fame game is an interesting comparison to our current issues. It was post-Flutie and a bit of a bounce back year. We played a elite team in a typical bowl destination. BC did travel well and fan interest was good. If we were to bounce back next year and end up in a decent bowl game, I question if our fans would respond like the BC fans did in 1986.

1993 Hall of Fame Bowl
1994 Carquest Bowl
1994 Aloha Bowl

These were the Coughlin/Henning era bowls. 1993 was a big year for BC and we showed up for the Bowl. The Carquest was a major letdown after fumbling away the Sugar Bowl with the loss to West Virginia. BC fans didn't really show up. I always felt the Aloha Bowl under its older form was the perfect bowl game for BC. It was an appealing destination for the players, it usually had a good opponent, it was the only game on Christmas Day and we were never expected to bring fans.

1999 Insight.com Bowl
2000 Aloha
2001 Music City Bowl

For TOB's first bowls we did not travel. Random dates and locales made this understandable. Yet the opponents and the excitement of being back in the bowls made most BC fans still care about these games.

2002 Motor City Bowl

In my opinion, the Motor City Bowl changed it all. We played Toledo. The game was a weekday after Christmas. Our casual fans started asking "we are playing who? In Detroit?" Any reward or excitement about being in a bowl was gone. Fans watched but no one cared.

2003 San Francisco Bowl
2004 Continental Tire Bowl
2005 MPC Computers Bowl
2006 Meineke Car Care Bowl
2007 Champs Sports Bowl
2008 Music City Bowl
2009 Emerald Bowl
2011 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl

Three trips to San Francisco. Two to Charlotte. A trip to Disney World and to the Blue turf thrown in. Some of these games were actually very fun and memorable, but none of them did anything the general fanbase's attitude towards bowls.

I would love to see BC champion a playoff. It would be a much better system for a school like us, but in the meantime, I just want BC back in a bowl. My fear is that if Spaz is the coach to return us to a lower-tier bowl, fans will care even less.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

It's been 31 days since we played football and we still have 12 days to go. This will be the longest streak between BC games within one season ever. As a BC fan we are conditioned for a bowl game right about now. This year is a little different. We will have the longest layoff of any team in college football. Some perspective:

Days between BC's games with Syracuse and Nevada: 43 days
Days between Oregon's last game and the BCS national championship: 37 days
Days between Auburn's last game and the BCS national championship: 37 days
Days between Nevada's games with La Tech and BC: 36 days
Days between BC's 2007 ACCCG appearance and the 2007 Champs Bowl: 27 days

Number of games BC played between October 2 and November 13 (42 days): 7

Since Nevada has a long layoff, I don't think the gap will negatively hurt our team. I am just worried about other BC fans like me. We might have to watch some of these meaningless bowl games just to remember what college football looks like.

Missing Mele Kalikimaka

[The following is a little history lesson for those younger BC fans.]

In the old days, when bowls still meant something, the college football postseason kicked off on Christmas Day with Aloha Bowl. BC played in the game twice and it was the prefect for us.

Why was the game perfect? Because it provided everything we needed and didn't ask much of BC in return.

We can whine about Boise or Detroit, but at the end of the day none of us actually have to go to these games. The player and coaches do. A trip to Hawaii was rare and a true treat. The guys got a unique experience and warm weather.

The game actually provided a showcase for BC. This was the first bowl game of the year and it was on ABC on Christmas Day. There was nothing else on. Millions of desperate sports fans tuned in just to get their football fix. And for BC fans it was great. The games were afternoons kickoffs, so you could open your presents, have a little family bonding and then watch BC. There was no juggling of schedules or figuring out where you were going to be for some random, midday weekday kickoff.

Plus we played real teams. In 1994, Kansas State was ranked and favored before our defense tore them apart. Like us, Arizona State squeaked into the 2000 Aloha Bowl, but at least they were a name from a power conference.

Playing in Hawaii also meant BC wasn't expected to travel. Few schools did. We just needed to provide a solid TV rating (which we always do).

Finally Hawaii just looked great and fun on TV. The scenic shots in and out of commercials made you feel warm. I wanted to hop on a plane after seeing Dan Henning in a Hawaiian shirt or watching TOB try to hula.

We played in the last Aloha Bowl. The official NCAA certification ended and was later replaced by the Hawaii Bowl. But the Hawaii Bowl is not different though. It is basically an extra home game for the University of Hawaii and is rarely on Christmas Day. Maybe one day BC will find themselves in this newer bastardized version of the Aloha game again, but it won't be the same. None of it is the same...I guess for Christmas I should ask Santa for an NCAA playoff with a championship game in Honolulu.