For all of us who hope that being located in the Boston Market and therefore, protected in the whole realignment landscape, I did talk with my friend who is a former pro scout. He told me that he had heard that the Big 10 is very disappointed with he addition of MD and Rutgers and have come to conclusion that the NE is just not a college marketplace, but rather the fans are avid for professional sports. I have no idea if he is right or not. But if so, it is imperative that we become the exception in NE football. We need a increase our fan support base by improvements to our stadium and tailgating experience -- we need to win more that 6 football games each year -- we need to build a reputation of one of those schools where folks want to attend a football game -- like the Clemson's, Florida's, TAMU's, etc. where college football fans put attending a game on their bucket list. Yes, we could rely on playing other teams that non-BC fans want to see, but we need to make that ticket one that folks want. We can do it -- In addition to building a fan experience at BC, we need to increase our traveling to games not at Alumni stadium -- how will we do this -- well, sure we need to have a good team -- not one who is relevant when once in a lifetime players like Flutie or Ryan comes along -- but relevance every year because of our program demands that kind of excellence. And we have to make BC compete with ND for those excellent athletes who are also excellent students. This isn't easy to do, but it takes a plan -- a specific development plan -- look at it this way -- if BC can increase its applicants the way it has done the past two years, it can also do the same in athletics.
Yes, there is a chance -- most likely over 50% that we will remain football school after all the consolidation is done -- but there is also a chance that we could not. Why take the chance if we intend to stay a football school and eventually become relevant. It is dangerous just to rely on TV revenues generated in the Boston SMSA and fans of other schools who will eventually show up at BC for games. Moreover, we have played West Coast teams and Big 10 teams in the past -- and then we went to scheduling 3 easy teams each year rather than adding a Ohio State or USC or AL like we used to do in the past. Let's roll out the NIL plan, improve the stadium, demand more than 6 wins from our coaches, and make the changes in tailgating that will attract folks to our stadium rather than watching the games on the ACC network -- even though they could make the trip to Chestnut Hill, but do not do so.
