(03-26-2017 04:02 PM)Bogg Wrote:  

(03-26-2017 03:52 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  

(03-26-2017 03:16 PM)Bogg Wrote:  

(03-26-2017 02:45 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  

(03-26-2017 02:00 PM)Bogg Wrote:  Are we sure BC's relevant in football? UConn was outdrawing them in attendance in the final years of Randy Edsall's first go-round, and even with all the advantages of ACC membership and higher-profile visiting teams through the conference they still barely outdraw UConn today (last year available through the NCAA, 2015, there was ~ 2k difference) despite UConn being in a conference where the fans don't recognize the opponents. Realignment is pretty much frozen until 2025, but it's pretty easy to make a case that if BC and UConn's situations were flipped UConn would be outdrawing BC at home by 10,000+ fans a game.

I'm not familiar enough w/ either school's attendance-tracking methodology, so I can't comment on your attendance argument.

However, I am sure that BC is relevant, despite its current down period.

I mean, the numbers are straight off the NCAA's website, so that's about as neutral a source as you can get. UConn's in a similar (in fact, worse) down period, so you can't really blame that. I won't argue that Boston College has far more football history, but for the last decade fan support has been more or less the same between the two schools, despite BC getting several significant advantages over the last several seasons. Given that the question was whether, if UConn and BC were both sitting in the AAC today, which school would be more attractive to a P5 conference, it'd likely be UConn - better fan support (BC would struggle to put 20k fans in the seats against an AAC schedule) in football and the potential for National Championships in basketball.

It's not a neutral number. The schools submit the numbers, and they all count differently. Some count people at the game (including press, players, etc.), others count tickets sold, others count paid attendance, others count fans at the game (including tickets given away), and others count tickets sold + tickets given away. All of those methodologies are valid (or at least commonly used), and they all have wildly different results. I have no idea how either school counts attendance, so I can't comment on it. And I'm guessing you're in the same boat as me.

The fact of the matter is that BC does have years of being very good, and they have for decades. That's relevance.

UConn fb is a new program that has never sone anything great, and UConn BB has some great accomplishments, but that's been the direct result of a now retired coach. I know Ollie won in his first year, but that was JC's team. UConn BB will probably be "back," but I'd choose BC if I had to choose.

Ollie won the title in his second year, following a season they were postseason ineligible due to APR issues from the final Calhoun years that led to a bunch of transfers out of the program. Ollie functionally had to recruit his own players to stay.

That being said - BC's been exceedingly average in football over the last decade - their high water mark is a win in the Champs Sports Bowl 10 seasons ago. Granted, UConn's been bad since they made the Fiesta Bowl (the same year BC lost the Fight Hunger Bowl to Nevada, so save the Oklahoma jokes), but BC football's been nothing great with all the advantages of P5 membership. If they were sitting in the AAC right now? They'd be a wreck. As it is, they have basically no more fan support than UConn does.

You're way over-attributing that title to Ollie IMHO.

And UConn was in a power conference until very recently.