Brian: Barring a Cinderella-type run from either the baseball or softball teams this year, Boston College will have gone yet another year without winning a single ACC championship. The school's lone ACC Championship remains the Eagles' men's soccer's ACC title in 2007. Not only did BC fail to double its ACC title count in 2011-12, but the results across the board were not very good.
Men's basketball ... 12 of 12 (4-12 record)
Women's basketball ... 11 of 12 (2-14)
Baseball ... 12 of 12 (currently 6-15)
Softball ... 8 of 8 (currently 2-10)
Men's Tennis ... 12 of 12 (1-10)
Women's Tennis ... 9 of 12 (3-8)
Women's Lacrosse ... 6 of 6 (1-4)
Football ... 9 of 12 roughly (4-8, 3-5 ACC)
Women's Volleyball ... 12 of 12 (3-17)
Women's Field Hockey ... 5 of 6 (1-4)
Men's Soccer ... 6 of 9 (4-4)
Women's Soccer ... 6 of 11 (6-4)
Boston College finished or is trending towards a last place finish in half of the ACC sports the Eagles compete in, with only the men's and women's soccer teams achieving any success. I'm guessing the answer is yes, but would you have traded this year's hockey National Championship for an ACC title in any of these sports? And if so, which ones?
Jeff: Would I trade a hockey National Championship for an ACC title in any sports other than men's basketball and football? Absolutely not, and it's not even close. So would I trade it for basketball? I think the question is legitimate but I am leaning strongly no. An ACC Tournament title would be great and there would be a lot of celebration for winning that Sunday Championship game but the focus would then immediately turn to the selection show and the NCAA tournament. With a national championship BC can hang its hat on that at least until the hockey postseason begins the following season. That's a huge difference. I'm guessing an ACC Tournament Final gets better ratings than the hockey National Championship Game by a significant margin, but on campus, the preference would be winning it all in hockey.
Football is probably a different story though. The popularity of football is so far superior to that of basketball or hockey that a conference title would be better than a national title. Also, winning the ACC Championship Game gives you approximately a month to enjoy it before you need to play a BCS bowl game. That is a ton of time leading up to the bowl game which is great exposure for BC. We have seen the huge difference between getting to that ACCCG and winning versus just simply getting to that ACCCG. Winning the game would be something that would not be as historic in the long run as a national championship in hockey, but it would have an unmatched impact in the short term.