DeFilippo was in Charlottesville on Tuesday for ACC meetings where scheduling and other topics related to adding Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the conference were discussed. We still don't know when Syracuse and Pitt will be allowed to join the conference. Could be 2014, or could be next season.
Either way, Syracuse's move to the ACC will eliminate one of our major non-conference series from our future non-conference schedules, and GDF will have to start thinking about replacing SU with another program.
Here's a look at Boston College's current non-conference future schedules:
2012 - at Northwestern, Notre Dame, Army, Maine
2013 - Syracuse, at USC, at Army, Stony Brook
2014 - at Syracuse, USC, vs. Army, Rhode Island
2015 - Syracuse, Notre Dame, Army, at Buffalo
2016 - at Syracuse, at Notre Dame, Buffalo
2017 - Syracuse
2018 - Syracuse, at Notre Dame
2019 - at Syracuse, Notre Dame
2020 - at Syracuse
2021 - Syracuse
With the ACC's additions of Pitt and Syracuse, it is assumed the conference will move to a nine game conference schedule. But with Syracuse becoming an ACC game ... soon, a big chunk of BC's future non-conference schedules just opened up.
If Syracuse is allowed to join the conference in 2013 and the ACC moves to a nine-game schedule, the 2013 schedule remains the same. The Orange would simply slot in as a conference game (assuming BC and Syracuse are placed in the same division or become cross-divisional rivals) and BC would keep its games at USC, at Army and against Stony Brook. The only downside here is that if the Eagles are given one more road ACC game than home game, BC could be left with just five home games on the 2013 schedule. Kinda lame.
If the Orange have to wait until the 2014 season, no sweat for BC either. The games against Syracuse would simply become conference games and BC would maintain its current non-conference schedule of USC, Army (Yankee Stadium) and Rhode Island in 2014, and Notre Dame, Army and at Buffalo in 2015.
It is starting in 2016 that scheduling holes really start opening up for Boston College. With Syracuse off the non-conference schedule, BC would be left with one slot in 2016, all three in 2017, two in 2018 and 2019, and all three again in 2020 and beyond.
You can expect GDF to fill at least two of these spots annually with a FCS school (likely a healthy rotation of Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Stony Brook, Fordham and the like) and a non AQ program like UMass or another MAC school. But Syracuse does leave a big scheduling hole -- the non-conference game against a BCS AQ program -- to be filled in 2017, 2020, 2021 and beyond.
Assuming that program isn't Notre Dame in 2017, 2020 and 2021, who do you want to see the Eagles play? Penn State? Stanford? Another series with Northwestern? UConn? How about UCLA? Your thoughts?