2012 Boston College Athletics: The Year In Lowlights

SB Nation is putting a bow on 2012 by counting down the 16 fan bases that suffered the most this past calendar year. Given that the countdown includes professional teams, and they're only counting one sport for a school (e.g. UConn basketball, Auburn football), I doubt that Boston College will make the list. But if you combined the football and basketball futility of this past year with the turnover in the athletics department, the Eagles deserve to be up there.

Part of the problem? It's gotten so bad that no one particularly cares, I guess.

Anyway, building off The UConn Blog's list of everything bad about UConn sports in 2012, I thought I'd also take a look back at just how bad Boston College's 2012 was. I don't need to tell you that by nearly every measure, and outside of the "water" sports, 2012 was a forgettable year for Boston College Athletics. But just how bad was it?

Here's a chronological recap of the year that was 2012. If I missed anything, leave it in the comments.

January:

-- Boston College men's basketball begins the year with a double OT loss to then 3 and 12 Rhode Island. The Eagles drop to 5-9 on the year.

-- Less than a week into the year, Frank Spaziani hired Jim Bollman as the Eagles offensive line coach/running game coordinator, a job title that caused great confusion. Ohio State fans promptly laughed in our faces.

-- The very same day Spaz hires Bollman, Luke Kuechly rips all of our collective hearts out by declaring for the NFL Draft with a year of eligibility remaining.

-- By January 13, Spaz had "finalized" his 2012 coaching staff ... Later that month, Mike Leach pirates BC's S&C coach.

-- Senior wide receiver Ifeanyi Momah denied a sixth year of eligibility.

-- Running back Akeel Lynch decommits from BC, choosing instead to play in Happy Valley. As did Sam Grant. And Donovan Henry, losing the speedster to Northeastern football track & field.

-- BC hockey lost their final two games of the 2011-2012 season up in Orono. (Doubles as a very, very good thing)

-- Boston College and Army decide to swap home dates for the 2012 and 2013 seasons. I'm sure DeFilippo doesn't want that decision back now, does he?

February:

-- Boston College women's basketball lost a lot of games.

-- 4/9 of the Boston College football coaching staff mutinied on Spaz. Or Spaz cleaned house after Signing Day, depending on who you ask. Spaz then got pretty pissed at Heather Dinich.

-- Shootyhoops crushed by Wake Forest -- Wake Forest! -- for a second time.

March:

-- Men's basketball loses a four-way tiebreaker for the ACC Tournament's ninth seed and finishes DFL. Former basketball guard Tyrese Rice joins chorus of alumni not happy with the school / program.

-- The 2012 NCAA Tournament went on, once again, without Boston College basketball. Though the department did host the East Regional, so the program got something out of it? I guess?

-- Boston College women's basketball coach Sylvia Crawley resigns due to "health reasons." The Globe doesn't even bother to cover the resignation.

-- Eagles DT Jaryd Rudolph was suspended from the football team, charged with violated the state's privacy and eavesdropping laws Feb. 12 when he recorded the episode on his cell phone and shared the tape with numerous other BC students.

-- The Boston College football spring game is attended by a few hundred people. Maybe. Becomes the punch line of all college football spring game attendance jokes.

April:

-- Spaz's contract is extended through 2019 (Just kidding).

-- Boston College football signs three-game series with UMass for 2014, 2016 and 2018.

Honestly, a lot of good things happened in April. Can't really complain about this month. Moving right along.

May:

-- Montel Harris was dismissed from the football team for repeated team rules violations. Transfers to Temple. Proceeds to break the ACC's all-time rushing record, only in the Big East. Rushes for nearly as many yards this season as all Boston College running backs combined in 2012.

-- Boston College lacrosse coach Bowen Holden not retained following seven seasons on the Heights.

June:

-- Maurice Hurst Jr. becomes the latest in a long line of top Massachusetts prospects to NOT verbal with Boston College, instead picking the Michigan Wolverines. Succinctly captures in-state recruiting under Frank Spaziani:

"It's really great, but I also think it's sad that all of us are from this area and none of us are going to BC. For Massachusetts players, it's kind of something you wouldn't believe you'd be able to do, going to some of these schools that you see on TV -- Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, all the really big schools no one expects to play for. Even when I walk around campuses, people are like 'Where are you from?' I tell them I'm from Massachusetts and they're like, 'I didn't know they play football there.'

-- Presto's Pizza is no more.

-- UConn hockey accepts an invitation to join Hockey East as the association's 12th member. Decides that HEA games at the XL Center is the best way to build the program.

August:

-- Senior tight end Chris Pantale breaks bone in foot, misses several games at the start of the 2012 season. Cornerback Albert Louis-Jean also injures his foot, forcing him to miss the entire season. Many more injuries happen before the season even begins.

September:

-- BC football loses the opener to Miami. Loses at Northwestern. Loses at home to Clemson. One BCI writer predicts that even if the Eagles begin the season 1-3, they'll still go bowling. What a dope.

-- Notre Dame joins the ACC, but only as a partial member. I thought we didn't do partial memberships, Swofford?

October:

-- The football team's best running back is thrown into the dog house. Team responds to this classic Spaz motivation tactic by losing to 2-10 Army, itself coming off a home loss to FCS Stony Brook.

-- Spaz not fired following the loss to Army. New Athletic Director Brad Bates says he won't fire Spaz until the end of the season.

-- Football players mouth off about getting "no respect" from Florida State, proceed to lose 51-7 down in Tallahassee. Spaz still not fired.

-- The defending National champs actually lose a hockey game. LOL.

-- Football loses again to Georgia Tech 37-17, going 0-for-3 on their midseason road trip. Spaz still not fired.

November:

-- DT Dillon Quinn leaves the program for "personal reasons." Football goes on to clinch their second consecutive losing season with an uninspired loss to Wake Forest.

-- Sophomore guard Jordan Daniels announces he's leaving the program a few days before the season opener vs. FIU. Basketball goes 0-for-Charleston Classic, including questionable losses to Dayton and Charleston.

-- Covering the spread against a top ranked Notre Dame program seen as a moral victory of sorts.

-- Spaz finds ever more creative ways to lose, taking a knee and sending the Virginia Tech game to OT. BC loses 30-23. Football also loses to N.C. State 27-10 to end the year, but with the season BC had, this can be looked at as a positive. Spaz finally fired.

-- Men's basketball loses to a program barely old enough to enroll in Division I-A Kindergarten. Spaz finally fired to cover up the stench of a hoops loss to Bryant.

December:

-- York denied #York925 on a last minute Providence goal in fron. Grown men openly weep.

-- Hoops loses to Harvard. Again. Needs OT to beat New Hampshire. New Hampshire!

-- After earning a 5-2 win over UAH to become the sport's all-time winningest coach, the Eagles get bludgeoned by the Gophers 8-1. Minnesota earns sweet, sweet revenge for getting bounced from the National semifinal on national television by smoking the Eagles in a regular season game on regional television. Hockey loses defenseman Patch Alber for the year in pre-game warmups in the Mariucci Classic opener against the Chargers.

Then again, it's pretty embarrassing to be complaining about the fact that Boston College hockey lost six games OUT OF 40 in calendar year 2012. #BCHockeyProblems

God speed, 2012.