Gene DeFilippo: We have Notre Dame on our schedule for the next two years. With eight tough ACC games and Notre Dame, we don't need any more teams from the BCS leagues. Look at the schedules of others in the ACC, the Big East, or the SEC, and you will see similar names to some of the schools we play out of conference.Toss Up - How do you like your non-Notre Dame out of conference schedule? Filled with BCS opponents or non-BCS opponents?
Brian: I like what Wake has done with their schedule, scheduling the bottom feeders of the BCS - Ole Miss, Vanderbilt. I think we can look for similar games in the future (with Northwestern already on the future schedule) and at least be open to 1-2 other BCS opponents in a given year. I'm not a big fan of having one BCS conference team on the out of conference schedule (Notre Dame, Syracuse, Northwestern, USC) and then 3 other non-BCS opponents in a given year. Doesn't really mesh with the Jags "anyone, anywhere, any time" philosophy.
Jeff: Assuming Notre Dame stays on the schedule beyond just 2 more years, I like how our schedule shapes up. Syracuse every year is a winnable regional matchup similar to the Wake-Vanderbilt game you mentioned. Meanwhile, USC will be exciting and playing Northwestern is much better than some other options. The only thing missing is UConn. Having UConn on the schedule annually would further indicate ACC supremecy over the Big East and would sell tons of tickets for both universities. If ND doesn't renew with us or we end up with any open dates, Gene needs to pick up the phone and get the Huskies on the books.
Brian: Not again ...
Gene DeFilippo: Syracuse comes onto the schedule in 2010, and we will play them each year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.Toss Up - BC v. Syracuse football annually after Thanksgiving? Good for the rivalry, or bitter reminder of 2004?
Brian: I am going to say this will only serve as a bitter reminder of 2004. I don't like this idea. What happened to scheduling Maryland in late November every year? Let's make football after Thanksgiving count by playing an ACC Atlantic foe the last week of the season. As much as I love the tradition and history of games like Georgia - Georgia Tech, Clemson - South Carolina, Florida - Florida State, these games don't have much meaning to the regular season and are sort of an anticlimatic end to the regular season.
Jeff: No no no. Having Syracuse as the last regular season game is perfect. It would be nice for our ACC championship game fate to already be determined prior to the last game of the year so that there is no chance of playing a must-win game one week and the ACC Championship game the next week.
Gene DeFilippo: Boston College did not drop the game with Army. It was Army that asked out of the game. We, too, are disappointed that we will not be making the trip to West Point this fall. The Army team is on our schedule in future years, and we certainly hope to play those games both in Alumni Stadium and on the campus at West Point.Toss Up - Scheduling the Army Black Knights going forward? Love it or hate it?
Jeff: I would love to see Army be the Parents Weekend game for a couple of years. I think you need to keep the Parents' Weekend game a winable one and for the near future, scheduling Army would certainly accomplish that. Eventually, hopefully Army strengthens their program like Navy has in the last 5+ years but in the meantime they are basically a 1-AA team.
Brian: Ahh, Jeff. The Army game is only good if BC also travels to West Point for games that the greater NYC area fans can go attend, so it can't be the Parents Weekend game every year. Still, I like this, although is the Big East trying to steal the service academies away? If so, I don't like this idea.
Jeff: If BC did play Army it would most likely be 2 home games for every 1 away game so that covers 2 of every 3 years anyway.
Gene DeFilippo: Boston College is required to apply to the city of Boston to obtain an entertainment license to play our football games. The license the city grants us stipulates that we may open the gates to our parking lots two hours prior to a noon game and three hours prior to a game that starts at 1:00 or later. The additional hour was granted to us last year, and it was very successful. I am thrilled that the city will give us that same three-hour period for most our home games.Toss Up - Better chance of the city of Boston backing the BC Master Plan or giving permission for BC fans to tailgate 9:00am to 9:00pm?
Brian: This is an easy one. The BC Master Plan will eventually be pushed through. Tailgating from sunrise to sunset will not.
Jeff: I don't care how unrealistic it is - I'm going with tailgating here. That would be a dream come true and also the reason why every BC fan needs to attend an away game and experience real post-graduation tailgating. As a student, you can tailgate all day long regardless but once you graduate you are at the mercy of when the parking lots open up. At Virginia Tech, for example, this year for the Thursday night game cars needed to be removed from tailgating lots by 4:00pm or something like that. But that didn't mean that tailgaters couldn't come in earlier than 4:00pm to get the evening started. At BC that would never happen.
ESPN began this poll and not surprisingly, Notre Dame is currently the #1 most hated team in all the land.Last one, Toss Up - Second most hated in your mind, Ohio State or USC?
Jeff: This is an easy one to answer - Ohio State. Boy do those fans love their Buckeyes and think that the Big Ten and Ohio State football is king.
Brian: I have nothing against the men of Troy. Although both school's respective conferences are holding up a college football playoff by standing on tradition, I'd give the slight edge to Ohio State because they can coast through a weak Big Ten schedule and then get crushed in the BCS championship year after year.
5 comments:
Great job today guys. Just wanted to comment on syracuse as the last game of the season. I think this is ridiculous. Jeff must be more interested in a clemson finish than a BC schedule, being in South Carolina and all.
But having the last game of the season matter is good for BC, home or away. Having an irrelevant game means it will be harder to fill alumni, which is already difficult. And lets be honest its never going to mean anything for syracuse either, except bowl eligibility. I just think unless its a true rivalry, this game should be an in-conference opponent, except for possibly Notre Dame. I want our guys riding a win that counts, going into the ACC Championship, rather than a game that doesnt matter.
And i voted three times for Notre Dame today, BC Fans do your part :)
raj - what i think you meant to say was, jeff wants bc-syracuse for after thanksgiving so he can dedicate his full attention to clemson-south carolina (since that is a guaranteed W for the eagles).
or maybe jeff would rather have bc-uconn annually after thanksgiving, so he could break bread with coach edsall and the huskies.
syracuse is not a guaranteed win for the eagles. I hate to do this but here goes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/28/sports/ncaafootball/28syracuse.html
Count me as one in favor of the BC-Syracuse end-of-season rivalry game. It has a lot of the things going for it that create a good rivalry- history, geographic proximity, and a reasonably similar academic profile. There's definitely animosity toward BC among the Syracuse alumni I met in Boston. And let's not forget that we owe them payback for 2004 in a big way.
And should we be lucky enough to have clinched the Atlantic Division title and have two weeks prior to that ACC Championship Game, that's a good thing. Our homebody fanbase needs as much time to prepare for making a road trip as it can get.
I like the Syracuse game. Even though they are terrible now, they were the closest thing we had to a rival in the BE. People will show up for that one.
We should never, ever schedule UConn in anything. They are a loser school that we gain nothing by playing, especially in football.
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