Boston College's ACC Footprint Is Invisible
It has been almost 14 years now and Boston College seems reasonably comfortable in its neighborhood, which has been the Atlantic Coast Conference since July 1, 2005.
From a financial standpoint, even the harshest critics of BC's move from the Big East to the ACC can not deny the soundness of the move. That conclusion will be further enhanced in August when the ACC television network begins operation, a move which is expected to boost the Eagles' annual television revenue 10 million dollars to an impressive $36 million.
When the Eagles left the Big East, they were getting paid a third of that total.
But for BC, once a competitive cornerstones of the Big East, the drought in the area of athletic success--especially in the primary revenue producing sports of football, men's and women's basketball--has been staggering.
Men's ice hockey at BC, under legendary Coach Jerry York, remains a vibrant force, although even the Eagles' icemen tumbled below .500 this season.
Not only are the Eagles non-factors in contending for titles in the ACC, they have reached a level which falls below mediocrity.
They have become irrelevant
Let's look at some numbers over the past 10 seasons as BC football and men's and women basketball have steadily faded from view.
In football, the Eagles won their last ACC division championship in 2008. Since the departure of Tom O'Brien, following the 2006 season, the Eagles have slipped into a crevice, which has not produced more than seven wins in any season since 2009.
The current guardian of BC football is Coach Steve Addazio, who spouts enthusiasm, but has produced five, seven-win seasons in six years at The Heights, with one 3-9 clinker.
Under Addazio the Eagles have never gone above .500 in ACC competition.
The Eagles, who will finish their spring practice sessions with their annual spring game this Saturday at Alumni Stadium, proudly talk about the seven players who went to the NFL combine this winter, which is a fine achievement.
They talk about the star power of running back AJ Dillon (a legitimate NFL prospect) and the continued development of quarterback Anthony Brown.
But six years into a reconstruction of a program which had tumbled before Addazio arrived in 2013, there has been no upward trend in accomplishments on the field.
It could legitimately be asked that if the Eagles' had so many NFL prospects, why couldn't they produce more wins?
And those seven players are now gone.
Football, however, is a beacon compared to men's and women's basketball.
The men's basketball team, under the guidance of Jim Christian for the past five seasons, has not made the NCAA tournament in 11 years. It has had ONE winning season in the past 10 years.
Women's basketball has been even more barren, last producing a winning record in 2009-10. The Eagles, in the past decade, have not been above .500 in the ACC in either men's or women's basketball.
If you look deeper, the drought has reached other sports.
In men's sports, BC's last conference championship win in football was in 2004 and in basketball in 2005--both were as members of the Big East.
In women's sports, other than hockey, no BC team has won a conference championship in more than a decade.
Countless stories and theories have been submitted about why BC has tumbled, ranging from strict academic standards, to inadequate practice facilities.
BC is trying.
The Eagles have committed more than $200 million in athletic improvements over the past few years, with the jewel of the collection being the recently opened Fish Field House, which provides an indoor practice facility for the football team.
But men's basketball and even men's and women's ice hockey have inadequate practice facilities, which works against the Eagles in recruitment and elsewhere.
BC athletic director Martin Jarmond, who replaced a five-year largely ineffectual reign of Brad Bates, has promised an improvement, but at BC promises without specifics are hardly secure.
One of the sticking points with the administration is the number of varsity sports BC sponsors. BC is the second smallest school in the ACC (ahead of only Wake Forest) yet sponsors more men's sports (12) than only Duke and North Carolina.
That the Eagles can have a varsity baseball team competing in an area where spring sometimes does not arrive until June, but NOT have men's lacrosse, is mind boggling because of the strong lacrosse heritage in New England and in the ACC.
But the biggest problem is not the just the lack of athletic success.
BC has done a great job recently in maintaining its primary athletic mission of graduating students and avoiding any major scandals--although there have been numerous incidents in the past.
The biggest problems is complacency from an administration, which is content to pocket huge athletic checks each year, hand out as little money as possible without having any major consequences for failure.
The ACC is not about to dump BC, no matter how badly the Eagles' perform, primarily because as one former prominent booster suggested that BC's motto should be changed from "Ever to Excel'' to "Somebody's Got to Lose.''
As long as BC maintains its graduation rate, the Eagles will be safe, but there continue to be consequences from athletic failure.
BC has won before with pre-existing conditions in academic standards and facilities. It can be done.
So maybe it is simply a matter of not having the right coach in place. But there should be a more pressing concern.
Interest level in BC athletics in Boston has fallen well below the Mendoza Line. When I first came to the Boston Globe in 1987, BC football and basketball were covered by both the Globe and the Boston Herald, home and away.
Boston remains a "pro'' town, but success would bring out more than a BC fan base and get media attention.
Now, the Herald and Globe still cover football on a regular basis, but neither paper travels with the basketball team and the Globe has even stopped covering many men's basketball home games--even against such traditional rivals as Syracuse.
No one, outside of a small inner circle at The Heights, seems to care.
The college basketball season will end this weekend with the Men's and Women's Final Four.
BC closed its shop for the year in both sports three weeks ago, as it has done regularly for the past decade.
On Saturday, many schools will wrap up their drills with spring football games, with a big time game atmosphere in more than a few places.
BC will finish its spring practice session on Saturday with its annual spring game, which will draw few thousand die-hards (if the weather holds up), looking for some happy news.
And then like pretty much every thing else in BC athletics, the Eagles will fade away, with hardly anyone knowing they were even there.