Boston College: not as smart as one may think

For perhaps the last time, Pitt and Boston College will face off on the gridiron this Saturday… For perhaps the last time, Pitt and Boston College will face off on the gridiron this Saturday at Heinz Field. The Eagles, who are currently tied for first place in the Big East, are making the second stop on their farewell conference tour, having already disposed of UConn, 27-7, a team that physically manhandled the Panthers two weeks ago.

The Eagles have a great chance to do a hit-and-run for Big East football this season. Appearing to be the best overall team in the conference this season, they could become the first conference champion to leave its league since, well, Miami of last year. A solid defense, steady offense and veteran leadership have propelled the Eagles to a 4-1 record, the only loss coming at the hands of Wake Forest — a future Atlantic Coast Conference opponent.

Last year, Boston College finished the season 8-5 and captured the San Francisco Bowl with a 35-21 victory over Colorado State. The year before that, a 9-4 season culminated with another bowl victory, a 51-25 drubbing of Toledo. In 2001, the Eagles were 8-4 and defeated Georgia in a bowl game.

So with the amount of success the Eagles have been having in the past few years, why would the school decide to break off its ties to the Big East and join the ACC?

For the same reason that Lawrence Phillips pawned one of his Big 8 Championships rings: to get money and get out of town.

The ACC is a better football conference than the Big East right now, although that doesn’t mean much, so the Eagles will get more exposure on television, new opponents and, most certainly, a boost in recruiting.

But is moving all of the Eagles’ sports teams to a conference where every school is in the South really going to make it easy to turn a profit for the school?

When the Eagles officially join the ACC next season, the conference will have 12 members and will split into two divisions. Boston College will be in a division with Maryland, Clemson, North Carolina State, Wake Forest and Florida State.

Makes you want to sing, “One of these things is not like the other.”

Say what you will about Miami and Virginia Tech splitting the conference for the ACC, but few can deny that geographically it makes sense for both schools — especially for Miami, which is located 1,100 miles away from West Virginia, its closest Big East football opponent other than Virginia Tech.

But a school from New England? It would make more sense for I-AA Furman, who gave Pitt all it could handle last month, to join the conference, being in South Carolina.

The other thing to consider is road trips. Boston College should get its frequent flyer mile cards ready. Transportation to all its away games will require a plane.

No longer can they bus their soccer teams or swimming and diving squads to UConn or Providence, schools which are not necessarily around the corner, but sure seem like it when compared to Clemson and Florida State.

That means the Eagles will have to fly just a little more than normal, a burden to any athletic budget. The best way for the Eagles to make money will be getting to the ACC championship game, the whole point of the conference enticing Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College to join. The winner of each division will play in a lucrative conference title game — something the Big 12 and South Eastern Conference already have — worth millions.

With Florida State on the schedule every year, the Eagles would have been better off staying in a depleted Big East where a BCS bid is available, if the conference manages to keep it in the coming years. That is a more attainable goal.

Boston College may be a bully in the Big East this season, but the Eagles will be severely overmatched in the ACC with the likes of Miami, Florida State and Virginia Tech running around. But this move also affects Boston College’s other sports teams as well.

In 2003, Boston College’s basketball team collected 23 wins last season in advancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament, only to fall to eventual national runner-up Georgia Tech. As solid as the team is, the quality of opponents will be too much for them to compete with night in and night out.

If the school stayed in the Big East next season, the Eagles would play in a potentially harder basketball conference, but would still see West Virginia, St. John’s and other familiar opponents — teams they have had success against in the past.

The school and the athletics program are in a bad situation, needing the football team to make the ACC title game at least once to financially justify the move. With 28 varsity teams, the Eagles will have to spend a large portion of their budget on traveling. If the teams, particularly football, can’t bring in the revenue, who knows what could come. Cuts in scholarships. Cuts in teams all together.

For a while, I really thought that Boston College’s departure was a slap in the face to the Big East and that it might put the conference in jeopardy. But in the coming years, if the Eagles can’t financially make the numbers work, maybe they will realize that the basketball-oriented Big East was never really that bad.

Geoff Dutelle is a staff writer for the Pitt News who predicted Boston College to win the Big East before this football season started, and is glad he is not the one in charge of booking the Eagles’ away flights. E-mail him at gmd8@pitt.edu.