Bowl-Bound Boston College Racks Up The Frequent Flier Miles

Boston College will be headed west for their bowl game for the third time in the last eight seasons. And for the third time since joining the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Eagles will travel the furthest distance of any bowl-bowl ACC team.

The Eagles sure are racking up the frequent flier miles when the calendar turns to December. Over the last six seasons, BC will have traveled over 24,000 miles round trip to get to their bowl destination. To put that figure in perspective, that's nearly the amount of elite qualifying miles one needs in a calendar year to get preferred status on US Airways.

Of course, BC's location in New England doesn't lend itself well to short trips to bowl games, with the closest ACC bowl some 440 miles from Chestnut Hill. Still, the number of miles traveled for BC relative to other ACC programs is pretty staggering. BC's shortest bowl trip occurred in 2006, when the Eagles traveled 861 miles to attend the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte. BC's shortest trip is still further than the longest bowl trips for Wake Forest (810 miles), Virginia Tech (790), Virginia (634), Clemson (526), N.C. State (597) or North Carolina (514) over the last six seasons.

During that same timespan, BC has averaged 2,020 miles to get to their bowl destination. In contrast, North Carolina has only had to travel, on average, 265 miles (3 bowls) while Clemson has only had to travel 297 miles on average (6 bowls).

Combine long bowl travel distances with the conference's third smallest undergraduate enrollment, and is it any wonder that the perception that BC doesn't travel well persists year after year? 

ACC's One-Way Bowl Travel Distances 2005-2010 (approximate)