Dear ‘Jags’, The Feeling is Mutual

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BC

The Boston College Eagles are gearing up to play Michigan State today in the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando..and evidently, the Eagles aren’t very happy to be there. We provide the following from BC’s top blogger, Eagle in Atlanta:

Let me echo what Jags is saying — this is not where we wanted to be, but winning 11 games is still very important. This is also the last BC football game for nine months, so enjoy every moment.

Laugh out loud!! OMG that hurts!!

Dear, Jags/BC…Guess what…the feeling is mutual. Orlando didn’t want you, either. Hell, NOBODY wants you. And for some reason you are never grateful that the conference has put ridiculous rules in place SOLELY to protect you and allow you to annually ruin the financial statements of our valuable bowl partners.

I happen to be extremely close to members of three different bowls in the ACC’s bowl order – and I cannot stress to you how fearful each of the bowls were that they would end up with Boston College coming to their game. It was a doomsday scenario for everyone. The Eagles couldn’t be more toxic in the bowl community.

A more polite way of expressing the concern could be found in a previous 850Theuzz blog entry:

Our committee is leery of the Eagles and we’re not convinced their fans will support this team on a bowl trip to Atlanta. The Chick-fil-A Bowl has a long tradition of sold-out stadiums and an atmosphere that is as loud as any stadium in the country and we’re not sure a pro sports town like Boston can support their team at that level.

Consider the following: as late as the morning of November 17th a very plausible scenario still existed whereby Boston College would have not earned one of the ACC’s bowl bids even after achieving a #2 national ranking in October and finishing the season with a 5-3 conference record.

Had Boston College ultimately lost to Clemson while a two of three teams comprised of NC State, Maryland and Miami become bowl eligible – then BC would have been fighting for the LAST bowl spot in Boise. The Eagles administration and fans were SO rude and so ungrateful during their last appearance in Boise that nothing short of an explosion of epic proportion from John Swofford and the ACC office could have gotten the Eagles an ACC bowl.

Its funny, because the same Eagle fans who don’t support their team while complaining about how they are treated love to boast about the program’s bowl winning streak of seven that ranks as the nations longest. What I don’t hear a lot about is WHY/HOW the Eagles have won seven in a row.

You see, the Eagles fall so far in bowl selection order each year because their weak fan support that they ultimately play a team of significantly lesser stature. For example, this year the Eagles were the ACC’s second place team (won the tougher Atlantic Division) but fell as far as the ACC’s bowl rules would allow into the 4th bowl slot where they will they will play 7-5 Michigan State, the Big ten’s 5th selection.

Gee…wonder how they perform so well in bowls?

Unfortunately for Boston College, this year’s game in wonderful Orlando isn’t going to do much for their future case. After embarassing the league in the ACC Championship game and issuing a video plea for support, the school literally gave away FREE TICKETS to the game to students. In this article from today’s Boston Herald, the BC administration gives us an optimistic projection for their attendance in Orlando:

BC, however, has failed to improve its reputation as a non-traveling school. Each program was allotted 12,000 tickets. Michigan State has sold between 10,000 and 11,000; BC expects to have between 5,000 and 6,000.

What more can BC want? They are playing in friggin ORLANDO against a recognizable Big Ten opponent on a convenient Friday in between Christmas and New Year’s. By the way…it is currently 77 degrees in Orlando, FL and “feels like” 39 degrees in Boston, MA.

What more could you need to support your team?

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60 Responses to Dear ‘Jags’, The Feeling is Mutual

  1. StateFans 12/28/2007 at 11:39 AM #

    Readers — if you run across any interesting articles from other news sources (Orlando, Michigan, etc) then please don’t hesitate to share here

  2. waxhaw 12/28/2007 at 12:12 PM #

    I’ve felt like we needed one more “upper tier” bowl for the ACC.

    I wonder how much the ridiculous BC rule is hurting us in securing another quality bowl?

    Also, is it more important to protect a team like BC that has brought their problems on themselves OR to support the rest of the ACC and gradually get higher payouts for the whole conference due to the bowls increased profitability.

  3. 66pack 12/28/2007 at 12:23 PM #

    tell me again why acc desired bc over syracuse.

  4. packgrad2000 12/28/2007 at 12:53 PM #

    Excellent entry. Seems that BC as a school and its teams are a plus for the conference, but the fan support is a huge negative.
    It’s almost the exact opposite of one of their Catholic rivals, Notre Dame. The biggest fan base in the country with its own NBC contract, yet they had one of the worst seasons in history (and they’ve been mediocre at best since Holtz left). If you could combine BC’s teams with ND’s fan base, that would be the ideal school for a conference.

  5. tvp1 12/28/2007 at 12:56 PM #

    Any truth to the rumor I’ve heard that Penn State approached the ACC with interest during the runup to expansion, but Swoff blew them off?

  6. SuperStuff 12/28/2007 at 1:01 PM #

    Gotta love those crazy BC fans. They better enjoy it because if they don’t compete for titles from now on out they might not even get a bowl game again. I like for all ACC teams to win their bowl games, but a small part of me sorta wants BC to lose to Michigan State.

  7. ncsu96 12/28/2007 at 1:29 PM #

    too funny, also reminds me how a few columnists asked why did TOB leave his best BC team? We all knew then and now everyone knows without a doubt.

  8. NCSU84 12/28/2007 at 1:57 PM #

    I can understand BC’s frustration. The school has had a Heisman trophy winner (Flutie), they have gone to 8 straight bowls, they won 10 games this year, they were ranked as high #2 this year. And yet, they continue to have limited fan support. BC plays in a very tough market for college sports, and they are doing/saying what any program would do in similar circumstances. So, while their antics/statements may seem crazy, I understand.

  9. CarnifeX 12/28/2007 at 2:09 PM #

    This is why BC (and their fans) would be a promoter of the playoff system. Understandable. It really is the downfall of the current bowl game system.

  10. buttPACKer 12/28/2007 at 2:14 PM #

    you know I still get redfaced for the conference as a whole when I see that aerial photo from the BC/VT title game on ABC. . . you know the one.

    We should exile them, and add Penn State!

  11. LRM 12/28/2007 at 2:19 PM #

    Actually, I believe this is one of the reasons against a playoff system. Say we DID, indeed, move to a playoff system of some sort.

    One, if games are all held at neutral sites, would at-large teams be selected based purely on merit or by the same manner in which bowls select teams now — whoever can bring the most fans? Is there any indication a BC would ever get an at-large bid based on this?

    Two, say first round games are played at one of the team’s home field. Who’s the better option to host, a 7-seed Georgia, with 95,000 that would eagerly show up, or the 2-seed Boston College, with perhaps 30,000 likely? Would it operate much like the NIT, which considers other factors than pure merit?

    [For the record, I’m not anti-BCS or anti-playoff…I can see the pros and cons for both, and I’m not sure what the right answer to the college football postseason mess is.]

  12. buttPACKer 12/28/2007 at 2:21 PM #

    we could use martha’s vineyard or nantucket as their St. Helena.

  13. Lunatic Fringe 12/28/2007 at 2:52 PM #

    Quote from Jags during Champs announcement –

    “We’re thrilled we’re not going to Atlanta. There’s nothing to do [there].”

    Keep burning those bridges big guy…

  14. StateFans 12/28/2007 at 3:01 PM #

    ^ OMG. Do you have a link to that?

  15. LRM 12/28/2007 at 3:05 PM #

    Meanwhile, while BC has fun watching Shamu or taking pictures with Minnie, Clemson & Auburn fans will set records for each of the following:

    1. Attendance
    2. Orange t-shirts, and
    3. “Hold that Tigers”

    Yeah, who’d want to play in the Peach Bowl? [I have to wonder, if the game is on a Sunday, is Chic-fil-a closed at the Georgia Dome?]

  16. Lunatic Fringe 12/28/2007 at 3:23 PM #

    I did a bit of research since one of the “reasons” for BCs poor attendance has always been they are just a “small Catholic school” that makes it hard for them to compete with the “larger state schools”.

    Living Alumni (from their websites):
    BC: 146,102

    Several ACC “State” Schools:
    NCSU: 156,300
    Clemson: 113,000
    VT: 185,000
    UVA: 160,000
    UNC: 253,967

    BC is VERY MUCH on par with many of the state schools in the ACC. (aside from UNC who is one of the oldest schools in the country)

    I will try to get all the ACC numbers and provide them later and maybe we can do a comparison between those numbers and actual attendance just for fun. 🙂

  17. tvopack 12/28/2007 at 4:11 PM #

    their fans are saving money for playoffs and Super Bowl.

  18. waxhaw 12/28/2007 at 4:29 PM #

    NC State with only 156,000 living alumni? Is that right?

    For the sake of argument let’s assume the following:

    student pop now = 30,000
    student pop 1980 = 20,000
    Make it easy and just use 25,000
    average 1/5 graduate every 5 years.
    average life expectancy 85
    average graduation age = 22

    Even calculating drop outs, you should have at least another 50,000-75,000 alumni.

    Of course, the state of our athletics has probably led to a higher cardiac arrest history amongst our fanbase.

  19. CarnifeX 12/28/2007 at 4:38 PM #

    “contributing alumni?”

  20. VaWolf82 12/28/2007 at 4:47 PM #

    For the record, I’m not anti-BCS or anti-playoff…I can see the pros and cons for both, and I’m not sure what the right answer to the college football postseason mess is.

    I pretty much agree with this. The point that alot of people miss is that the current postseason is better than at any time that I know of. So it’s hard for me to get upset when a two-loss team (UGA, USC, Oklahoma etc) doesn’t get to play in the BCS championship game.

    I was a student in 1979 when the ACC Conference Champion (NCSU) got an invitation to the inagural Garden State Bowl in New Jersey…during exam week. That same year, Clemson, UNC, and WF all went to nicer bowls, while State declined the GS bowl. So don’t try to tell me that the current system is unfair or ridiculous….because I’ve seen both first-hand and the current system is neither.

  21. Texpack 12/28/2007 at 5:00 PM #

    It is not unusual for big city universities to suffer from the competition with pro sports teams. They compete for the casual fan’s dollar as well as coverage in the local press. Even during the glory days of the Run & Shoot at U of H they only drew about 20,000 fans/game. Even the Alumni for most schools need a little bit of buzz to get them energized to attend a few games. The Research Triangle is as heavily slanted in favor of college sports coverage as markets like Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Boston and such are geared towards professional sports.

    Schools like BC and UH have to quit bitching about the perception of their programs and get some people to the games.

  22. Lunatic Fringe 12/28/2007 at 5:12 PM #

    Waxhaw…

    A link to NC State page with Alumni information:

    http://www.ncsu.edu/alumni/

  23. waxhaw 12/28/2007 at 5:23 PM #

    It confirms the 156,000 number but it still seems low to me.

    We have grown a ton in the last 20 years, I would imagine our living alumni figure will grow a ton over the next 20 years also.

    It definitely throws a monkey wrench in BC’s argument though.

  24. CStanley 12/28/2007 at 6:13 PM #

    Quote from Jags during Champs announcement –

    “We’re thrilled we’re not going to Atlanta. There’s nothing to do [there].”

    Keep burning those bridges big guy…

    I’ll echo, you need to link this…b/c this is simply just too good to be true.

  25. Trip 12/28/2007 at 6:24 PM #

    Watching BC on the tv is still painful, they’re STILL chatting Matt Ryan up. He just got sacked though for 14 yards so I guess that makes up for it.

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