The Boston College mistake

posted by LW, Friday, November 06, 2009

Yesterday's unveiling of the ACC's new bowl lineup made it safe to say what a lot of folks have been thinking:

Adding Boston College to the conference was a mistake.

That's certainly no offense to the Eagles, who have represented themselves well and proved plenty formidable during their five seasons in the new digs. Two trips to the ACC football title game isn't too shabby, and B.C. is shockingly in serious contention to win the Atlantic Division a third consecutive year.

The Eagles have been solid in basketball as well, so this is in no way a knock on their viability from an on-field or on-court standpoint.

But ask yourself this question: If the ACC could do it all over again, would it pursue Boston College?

I say the answer would be a resounding no, particularly after the ACC's bowl structure has been reduced to a shell of what it once was -- and it wasn't anything spectacular to begin with.

The ACC lost its tie with the Gator Bowl, and the immensity of that loss is underscored with a look at the bowl lineup that will be in place starting in 2010.

The BCS gets the ACC champ.

The Chick-fil-A gets the second pick.

The third pick goes to ... the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando.

The fourth pick goes to ... the Brut Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas.

The fourth pick of ACC teams goes to El Paso, Texas.

Then there's the Muffler Bowl in Charlotte, the Music City in Nashville, the Independence in Shreveport and the Eaglebank in Washington, D.C.

The Chick-fil-A usually provides a good matchup with the SEC (against the SEC's fourth- or fifth- best team, by the way), but beyond that it's pretty much blah.

Champs Sports is against Big East. The Brut Bowl is against Pac-10. Muffler is against Big East. Music City is TBA. Independence is against Mountain West. Eaglebank is against Conference USA/Navy/Army.

Whoopee.

The loss of the Gator occurred largely because of conflicts between the Gator and ACC with regard to which teams the Gator could select. The ACC strong-armed the Gator into taking Georgia Tech in 2006, when the Yellow Jackets had already played Wake Forest in front of empty seats at the conference title game.

The championship game's three-year run in Jacksonville was largely a disaster.


The Gator also was not a fan of the ACC's one-loss rule, imposed to keep bowls from selecting a team that had two more losses than a team that was still available.

This might as well have been called the Boston College Rule. The Eagles got the shaft in 2005 when they won nine games and had to travel to Boise for what was essentially a road game against Boise State. They got the shaft in 2006, when they won 10 games and ended up in Charlotte.

The past two years, Boston College won its division but ended up in Orlando and Nashville.

You can't blame the Gator Bowl, which is now aligned with the SEC, for wanting to make money and stay afloat in these perilous economic times. You also can't blame the ACC for seeking to preserve the notions of reward and merit.

But you can say the ACC was misguided in going after Boston College. In its pursuit of the Northeast media market, the conference ultimately delivered a gut punch to its own bowl market.

Well, at least the ACC teams that go to El Paso will come home smelling good ... assuming Brut actually smells good.

You know, the ACC's new bowl partners would be a much bigger story if it weren't early November and the media that follow the conference weren't consumed with football and basketball.

Caulton Tudor of the Raleigh News & Observer said the ACC should've pursued East Carolina instead of Boston College.

All these years later, we know that then-Virginia governor Mark Warner had a better vision for ACC expansion than almost everyone else during the controversial spring and summer of 2003.

It's just too bad for all parties, including the ACC, that Warner didn't incorporate East Carolina into his strategy.

Warner's decision to force-feed Virginia Tech on the ACC has turned out to be the bright spot in the move from nine to 12 teams. Miami and Boston College, although excellent schools with impressive athletic traditions, haven't been good fits.

I wouldn't totally disagree with East Carolina's inclusion, but West Virginia seems like a good fit.

I'd also argue that Miami is still valuable because of the high profile attained when the Hurricanes are good in football.

So take out Boston College and add West Virginia/East Carolina.

Makes a lot more sense, no?

Here's the story from The Charlotte Observer on the ACC's new bowl partnerships.

Speaking of East Carolina, man did Skip Holtz's Pirates blow some opportunities in last night's 16-3 loss to Virginia Tech.

Good to see Ryan Williams get back on track. Kid is fun to watch.

David Teel says the Hokies haven't quit.

Good story by Travis Sawchik on Dabo Swinney's success along Florida's I-10 corridor.

Clemson football divides Florida into five recruiting zones, and Swinney was responsible for making the Tallahassee to Jacksonville region the program's richest recruiting ground.

Swinney notes the prizes don't stop with Spiller: "Jamie Harper, I-10; Daniel Andrews, I-10; Xavier Brewer, I-10; Rashard Hall, I-10."

How many miles has Swinney logged in his former recruiting zone?

"Many, many, many miles be-bopping down from Tallahassee to Jacksonville and back and forth," Swinney said. "I've been pulled over a couple times, too."

In The State, Clemson's defense tries to improve its numbers against running quarterbacks.

In the Greenville News, a piece on Kyle Parker.

Eight games into his first season, many of the questions have been answered. Parker can push the ship through a storm. He might graze a rock along the way, but the kid’s a winner.

In the Tallahassee paper, a piece on DeAndre McDaniel.

In the St. Petersburg Times, Florida State frets about facing C.J. Spiller.

"I don't know if we've faced many people who can do as many things to hurt you as (Spiller) can," Mickey Andrews said. "You think they've got three or four (No.) 28s out there playing."

And don't think he hasn't been contemplating another question as he watched film this week: What might have been if Spiller, a star at Lake Butler's Union County High, had signed with the Seminoles in 2006?

FSU coach Bobby Bowden and his staff thought Spiller would be a Seminole. Florida, however, believed it had won an intense recruiting battle for Spiller. Instead, as Bowden joked of his son Tommy, "that crook up there at Clemson" lured him away.

"It was close," Spiller said. "Florida State was my first football scholarship offer. Growing up and watching those guys, they were really my childhood team, so that meant so much to me. They were probably harder to turn away than Florida.''

Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi says Brandon Spikes' "self-suspension" was a sham.

And it sounds crazy, but Maryland is still alive in the Atlantic Division race.


LW

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