Will BC Face A Ranked Team This Season?

After the preseason polls were released, Boston College had just two ranked teams on their 2010 schedule -- Virginia Tech (6 USA Today/Coaches, 10 AP) and Florida State (20 in both polls). Both programs fell out of the polls this week after they suffered significant losses in week 2.

If you look at the Eagles current schedule, there's not a Top 25 team on the schedule for the Eagles' 10 remaining regular season games.

Regardless of whether Virginia Tech, now sitting at 0-2, wins this weekend against East Carolina, I don't think any margin of victory will propel the Hokies back into the Top 25 before their September 25 date at BC. Meanwhile, Florida State likely will have to rattle off wins against BYU, Wake Forest and Virginia, and be competitive against Miami to jump back into the polls before hosting the Eagles.

Notre Dame was getting a good number of votes in the preseason, but with a loss at home to Michigan in week 2, and a tough, ranked Stanford team coming to South Bend in two weeks, it's doubtful that the Irish can crack the Top 25 in time for their October 2 trip to Chestnut Hill.

The 2-0 Wolfpack probably has one or more losses coming up on the schedule -- Cincinnati, at Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech -- and doesn't appear to be a threat to be ranked by October 9. Same could probably be said for Clemson, where a brutal stretch of games -- at Auburn, Miami, at North Carolina, Maryland, Georgia Tech -- probably gives the Tigers multiple losses heading to BC at the end of October.

BC probably won't face a bowl-bound team down the stretch in the month of November with a schedule that includes Wake, Duke, Virginia and Syracuse.

The one chance BC likely has at playing a ranked team is -- don't laugh -- Maryland. If the Terrapins, who already have wins against in-state Navy and Morgan State, can win at West Virginia this Saturday, two more wins against Florida International and Duke, and a win at Clemson (who the Terrapins have beat now 3 out of the last 4 years) and the Terps could very well be 6-0 and firmly in the Top 25 heading into their Atlantic Division matchup with the Eagles. The Navy win is looking less impressive with the Middies struggles against Georgia Southern, but 6-0 with wins over WVU, Clemson and Navy should easily put the Terps in the Top 25.

You have to go back nearly 25 years to find the last time the Eagles went through the entire regular season without playing a team ranked in the AP Top 25. That year was 1986, a season where BC played an independent schedule that included games against Penn State, Maryland, Louisville, West Virginia, Army, Syracuse and Holy Cross. The Eagles finished the regular season at 8-3 and went on to beat a ranked Georgia team in the Hall of Fame Bowl.

So what do you think? Will the Eagles play a ranked team this season?