In looming turbulence of conference expansion, BC finds safe harbor in ACC’s historic alliance with Big Ten, Pac-12
By Gary Washburn Globe Staff, August 29, 2021, 5:14 p.m.There are sexier stories in the Boston sports landscape as we approach September. Cam or Mac? The Red Sox trying to avoid a late-season freefall. The Celtics’ quest to build a contender and Brad Stevens signing everybody, including the TD Garden ushers, to contract extensions.
And while nobody in Boston really acknowledges Boston College until it makes a coaching change or Clemson comes to the Heights, the Eagles’ athletic program was given a critical lifeline this week as college sports again took a bizarre and rather concerning turn.
To offer an update, Oklahoma and Texas, longtime Red River rivals on the football field, decided to collaborate and approach the Southeastern Conference about membership. The SEC quickly accepted the Big 12 stalwarts beginning in 2025, shifting even more power in the college sports landscape to essentially one 16-team megaconference.
Before the poaching of other schools began, the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences quickly huddled and decided to form a historic alliance that will enhance each brand and protect themselves from unbridled expansion.
That means schools such as Boston College will get boosts in scheduling with schools from the Pac-12 and Big Ten coming to Chestnut Hill for marquee football and basketball games.
BC’s stint in the ACC has been rather, well, uninspiring for Boston sports fans. The football program is barely above average and the basketball team has produced a handful of NBA players but zero NCAA Tournament appearances since Al Skinner was unfairly fired 11 years ago.
The Eagles have been searching for significance and the move to the ACC did nothing but guarantee an annual windfall to the school’s coffers from its share of conference revenues. Let’s be honest, there’s little local interest in BC’s major sports. Only when Clemson, Florida State or Notre Dame come to Alumni Stadium is there really any buzz about the football team.
And Conte Forum is cavernous except when Duke or North Carolina are in town. The program desperately needed a shakeup, and this alliance may be the answer because there’s nothing worse than insignificance as a Power Five progr
Patrick Kraft has been BC’s athletics director for the past 15 months, and he’s giddy about this alliance. Bringing schools from the West Coast and Midwest to the Heights can boost television exposure, recruiting, and eventually national prestige and respect.
Many view BC as a sleeping giant, a program that could become a national factor, if managed correctly.
“I think there’s great opportunity and I think it’s a great time to do this,” Kraft said. “There’s uncertainty on what the future of the NCAA is going to look like. There’s uncertainty on the college football playoff. The addition of the NIL [Name, Image and Likeness licensing] to our enterprise and I’m a firm believer in it.”
With no real NCAA sports czar, schools such as Oklahoma and Texas are allowed to bolt their conferences, damage the brand of their Big 12 brethren and head for the SEC with no consequence. It’s the Wild, Wild West and, as with many issues, the NCAA is impotent and clueless in its stance on these defections.
It was critical for the other three Power Five conferences to protect themselves after seeing what happened to the Big 12. Schools such as Ohio State, Oregon, Florida State, or Michigan might see little benefit from this, but the rank-and-file members such as BC, Cal (my alma mater) and Iowa, should benefit from a partnership that allows schools to host fresh opponents from the other two conferences.
BC will become more attractive to recruits with a better schedule in basketball, football and Olympic sports. It desperately needs recognition. Michigan State, Alabama, Ohio State are on the Eagles’ football schedule in the next decade, that should help. But BC needs more of a boost across the entire athletic program.
“I think what it does for us, we’re on firm, stable ground as a conference,” Kraft said. “I sympathize for what’s going on with the Big 12 right now. I think basketball is much easier to impact, gives us some marquee games. We, as a conference, will have some say in what the future of this NCAA is going to look like moving forward. It’s not a financial play, but a stabilization play.”
Kraft said he understands the only way to drum up more local support for Boston College sports in a market that largely ignores college sports is simply winning. BC’s women’s lacrosse program began the Kraft era by winning the NCAA championship in May.
“We’re in a pro market and what we’ve got to do, and I would not expect [The City of] Boston to be excited about the alliance, is get people excited about Boston College,” he said. “That burden is on us. We’ve got to win. I think we have an incredible opportunity. We have one of the most passionate fan bases in the country. They are loyal.
“We’ve got to give them a product. We’re in a great sports city, and if you’re winning two games a year it doesn’t do anything, but if you’re winning 10 games a year it changes it. It’s a process. We’ve got some big boys rolling in [to BC for games] and I believe we’re a big boy, too.”
This alliance cannot prevent situations such as the shocking departure of Oklahoma and Texas from the Big 12 from happening again. And the NCAA cannot prevent member schools from changing conferences, if those agreements are legal, but the forming of these super conferences damages the college sports landscape.
College sports were built on tradition, regional rivalries and bragging rights. But university presidents are ditching these concepts for higher bowl game payouts. So we have Nebraska and Rutgers or South Carolina and Oklahoma or BC and Florida State in the same conference. The tradition has faded, replaced by greed and gluttony.
This alliance allows for protection for schools such as BC. But the only way to insulate yourself in these times of conference expansion anarchy is by winning, and BC fully understands that.
