"In my day, there was only Disneyland and the Rose Bowl. We didn't have new fandangled things like DisneyWorld or the Champs Bowl!" My last lecture to students was well received by alumni, but didn’t seem to spike attendance among current students. For shame, you youngsters! In my day, we weren’t in the ACC. We didn’t compete for championships. We lost to teams like Temple! You sat through a thunderstorm as we lost to Florida State. Big deal! I sat through a thunderstorm as we lost to Army.
I told you to go to Jacksonville. We lost, but we had a good time. Now I am telling you to go to Orlando. BC is behind this too. They are giving students **FREE TICKETS**. Come on! When I was at BC we paid for everything! The only free thing I got in four years was a bunch of bus rides, but that required freezing at the bus stop for hours each day.
You cannot use exams as an excuse this time. You cannot use time as an excuse. What is there to do at home during Christmas week? Hang out with a bunch of your high school friends? Get in the car and road trip it with a bunch of SuperFans. You get to see Matty Ryan for one last time. You can hit the amusement parks. Heck, they even give away free beer at SeaWorld. If you cannot have fun in Orlando with a bunch of college friends, you’ve got problems.
Go to the Champs Bowl. Next season will probably be a step back. We’ll be fighting for the bowls in San Francisco or Boise. This is the one to go to. BC fans need to shake our travel rep and it starts with you.
**Free tickets**. Florida. Christmas time. We wish we had it this good back in the day.
[**HOW TO GET FREE TICKETS: Beginning Monday, December 12, 2007, students may come down to the Ticket Office during normal business hours (Monday - Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.) and pick up their ticket to the bowl game. Students will need to show their BC ID in order to receive their ticket and there is a limit of one ticket per BC student. Additional tickets may be purchased for $60 each. This offer will end on Wednesday, December 19, 2007.]
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25 comments:
ATL - don't say next season will be a set back just yet. There is hope! I am confident we can compete for another ACC Atlantic title. I'm assuming we have to worry about Wake, Clemson and FSU next year. Just as a teaser, if you look at FSU's schedule next year, they have a tough road back to the top of the Atlantic:
Home - Florida, Colorado, BC, VTech, Clemson, Wake
Away - Miami, NC State, Georgia Tech, Maryland
It's not impossible that they lose all of those games at home next year.
Unfortunately for us, Wake and Clemson miss VTech next season. Has anything been written about how the unbalanced ACC schedule can hurt a team's title hopes? Going through VTech every year while other Atlantic schools miss them can't be to our advantage.
By virtue of being in the same class as old man ATL, I guess I am a grumpy old man as well...cool! Let me play the role for just one second:
students, those of you who do show up, please continue to be loud. But DO NOT YELL when BC is on offense. You do that when we are on DEFENSE, not when Matty is trying to drive the offense for a game-tying touchdown. A few of you didn't seem to know that at the ACC title game. Of course back in my day, the only time we yelled was because of the pain from walking up the old, much more narrow Higgins stairs in the snow on the way to class. Did I mention it was uphill both ways?
The point about having to go through VT every year is somewhat undermined by the fact that we've won 2 out of those 3 regular season games so far. But yes, it would be nice to have a guaranteed annual win against Duke instead.
downtown_resident, you're over 30 which makes you ancient to a college student.
any current students who aren't going to the game want to hook me up with their free ticket? still have my old bc id laying around somewhere...
Any recent alums that still have an ID laying around and need a free ticket because you're on a budget, let me know. I hope this pushes you over the edge to go if you were on the fence. I have friends that aren't going to Orlando so I'll do my best to hook anyone up that emails me.
BC TICKET OFFICE if you are reading this, don't waste your time trying to catch me. Come on, you have better things to do. Spend it trying to figure out how to get more people down there and better publicizing events. I'm only doing this to help our travel rep since you guys aren't doing enough on your end.
FYI - Gene D and the athletics department is not paying to send the whole band down to Champs. I've been told only 36 are going (smaller than at Clemson).
What kind of a message is that? I'm tired of Gene popping off about BC not traveling well, and this sort of feels hypocritical...
true we have beaten vtech 2 of 3 but they only have 2 other in conference losses in 3 years! That means we have capitalized on beating vtech while other Atlantic teams lost to them. I'm just wondering if this will catch up with us over the years.
See you at the bowl! Go BC!
A few comments from another "old-timer" about BC's effort here:
1. I wish they would do a better job of promoting the game. I'm in the Boston area and have seen no ads, heard no radio promotions or anything to encourage the casual sports fan that a trip to sunny FL would be a fun family adventure. Most of my sports fan friends have no idea where BC is even playing.
2. I've gone to the past two bowls and the ND game this year and made it a point to go to the "official" BC tailgate party, which is usually $25-30/person. For this game, they are charging $130/person! (I'm bringing my whole family to the game, but WON'T spend $520 for a two hour tailgate) Not a great way to encourage BC fans to gather together and show unified support. I sent an email to the Flynn Fund on Monday. Radio silence since then. Can't wait for them to call me asking for my annual check later this month.
I'm a senior who went to nd, clemson and jax this year but i'm unforntunately going to be out of the country on the 28th. does anyone think it will help our travel "statistics" if students who can't make the game get their free tickets anyways?
atleagle-
I wondered about your thoughts on the fact that BC is only committing to send less than 40 members of the marching band. This shows me that they are not truly trying to rid themselves of the awful travel rep that we have. If athletics can't get behind shedding our rep, how can we expect students and alums to do so?
Love your blog, I check in at least once a day!
I graduated in May, still have my BC ID, and just booked a plane ticket to Orlando. If anyone has a student ticket that they aren't going to use, I will gladly take it off your hands. Every saved dollar counts ;). See you all in Orlando.
Concerning the Screaming Eagle Marching Band - I was proud of them in Jacksonville and thought they were the best I have ever seen the. Although much smaller than the Virginia Tech Band, I thought they stacked up very well, and actually outperformed the Hokie Band.
Gene - arrange for the entire Band to be at this Bowl Game. Do the right thing, for crying out loud.
The Band represents the team, students, fans, school and the entire BC Community. They are very good, and they deserve to go because of their hard work all year.
Yeah that's a joke not sending the whole band.
Aren't they usually introduced as the "largest student organization on BC campus" when they perform? Sending 40 people really makes that sound like a crock.
Traditional powerhouses like ND and OSU seem like they just try to fill the entire field with an obnoxious amount of marching band people. I mean seriously, ND has 40 people playing the flute and you couldn't hear them if you were standing next to them. It's about image more than anything, and BC definitely needs to work on their's.
Could you repeat that, ATL? This time into my good ear?
Gene - do the right thing, buddy. Send the whole band.
Students - take advantage of this free ticket deal and go to the bowl game! I had the opportunity as a student to get a free ticket to go to the 2003 bowl in San Francisco, and it was one of the most fun experiences I had while in college.
Go Eagles! See you in Orlando.
Yet another reason why you should never, ever get rid of your student ID card.
I have lost all faith in the BC students after their poor showing in Jax. The student showing there was pitiful!!
Also shame on the school for not organizing a bus or other options to the ACC CG.
I honestly thought up until the CG game that our poor travel rep was a result of the bowls we were going to...the ACC CG game burst that bubble.
Just got word this morning, athletics has agreed to send the entire marching band down for this one.
Scott how many students can you expect to make that trip on less than 2 weeks' notice?? You're talking about dropping at the very minimum $400+ for that one. And the vast majority of BC students don't have cars (RV reservations for ND are made months in advance), so you pretty much have to fly. The alumni are the ones who dropped the ball on that one.
Let's not finger point here. It's not the students fault and its not the alumni's fault.
Simple fact is that we have to get better at this traveling thing if we want to play in bowls befitting the talent on the field. Or we can choose not to do anything about it and resign ourselves to December trips to Boise, Charlotte, SF and other cold weather destinations.
Bowls are fun. A lot of fun for both students and alumni. Get to one, and I promise you you'll want to come back in future years.
Not trying to state the obvious, but the reason we go to average bowl games isn't because of how we travel it's because we don't win the games that would bring an automatic BCS game. Anyone remember Syracuse a couple of years ago during our final Big East season or VTech this year. Anyone could have predicted Champs and some were thinking Nashville if we didn't win the title in Jacksonville.
BC has once again come up short in the post season. They had better records than Virginia and Clemson and were ranked higher in each of the four major ranking polls--BCS, AP Top 25, USA Today and ESPNU Allstate. Better bowl for both with more money!!! Isn't the $$$ one of the reasons BC was dragged into the ACC? The Champs is the 4th most prestigious in the ACC. Didn't BC play in the championship game? Playing Michigan State is a team that finished 8th in the Big 10 conference and did not make it to the top 25 in any of the above mentioned major bowl rankings. If it's that the team doesn't travel well, whose has that responsibility? Clue: Just take a look at the Michigan State official web cite and note the remarks that Tony Martin, chairman of the bowl's selection committee had for Michigan State's Athletic Director "designate" Mark Hollis. Someone needs to step up and accept the responsibility for the continued second and third flight of bowls that BC has been destined to attend. I'm frankly amazed that more BC people aren't outraged by this continued track record. But then again, maybe BC people don't care--after all, according to one official at BC, "it's a dead week between Christmas and New Years". It's time--even overtime--for a change!
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