About the Chick-Fil-A Bowl

Many thought Gary Stokan's explanation on what BC needs to do to get considered for the Chick Fil A Bowl was double talk to placate BC critics. It's not. I joined the Atlanta Sports Council and actually met privately with Stokan earlier this year. Within two minutes of meeting him I was hitting him up with BC bowl questions and he was very candid. It wasn't an on the record conversation, but now that Stokan has spoken about it publicly I don't think I am breaching any confidentiality.

The Atlanta Sports Council is very open to BC and appreciates our TV draw and the newness we would bring to either game. Ticket sales and attendance are vital to the bowl. The Council has commitments to sponsors and local hotels to have the stadium full. That doesn't just mean tickets sold. It means they want butts in the seats. If any school were to buy their allotted tickets and eat them (which BC has done on a smaller scale in the past) it would hurt the Bowl.

A team doesn't need to fill all 12,000 allotted seats. The bowl can live with a smaller commitment if they can pair us with a strong ticket buying opponent (say South Carolina, Alabama or Georgia). However, BC has never stepped up to the plate on the minimums. I don't know if BC doesn't think they could rally 5,000 fans or doesn't want to take the financial risk involved. Maybe they just don't want to embarrass themselves by coming up short for such a public ticket push.

As much as it would be my dream, I don't think BC should focus on the Chick Fil A Bowl. The short window to sell tickets will always be a challenge for BC. Instead we should try to get into one of the Labor Day weekend kickoff games. Those would have more than a year of build up. BC marketing and the fans could plan out the trip and spread the word. We've brought more than 5,000 to Notre Dame and more than 4,000 to Clemson. With planning and support we could do the same for a big game in Atlanta.

If you want to do something about this, send Gene a note and let him know that you would buy tickets for either of Atlanta's games. Send the bowl game an email too. If 5,000 of us let them know we are excited about these games, we may actually get into a real bowl one day.

Chick-Fil-A and other links

A lot of BC fans have cynically scoffed at the ACC's announcement that they've signed an extension with the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. Can you blame them? The Bowl isn't even visiting BC this weekend and passed on a chance to take Matt Ryan and crew a few years ago. I think BC will play in the ACC's No. 2 bowl eventually. It will just take a few things to fall in place. We need the BC rule to keep out the good traveling teams and we need South Carolina or UGA to be the SEC options. The Chick-fil-A is a regular sellout, but those two schools would really drive demand and ease the pressure on BC to sell tickets. Who knows, this year might even be the year if VT and Georgia Tech both get into BCS games.

I thought it was interesting to read how the team reacted to Haden and Tuggle's departures. It seems like most guys are taking it in stride.

Smart football has a good take on coaching. His theory is that midweek coaching is more important than in game coaching.