2014 ACC Football Schedule: What Would Be The Ideal Boston College Schedule?

In a few hours the ACC will release the schedule for the conference which will sure up the 2014 Boston College schedule. The release of the 2014 schedule begs the question what would be the most ideal schedule for the Eagles? BC had an interesting schedule in 2013 that had its peaks and valleys. The Eagles had their tough stretches, including three out of four against Florida State, Clemson and USC, and lighter months, like the November season-ending stretch of games against New Mexico State, N.C. State, Maryland and Syracuse.

Boston College already has three scheduled non-conference opponents -- @ UMass (August 30), USC (September 13) and Colorado State (September 27). We also can roughly assume that the season will end with a home game against Syracuse. That would leave the following opponents: Louisville, Pittsburgh, @ Florida State, @Virginia Tech, @ Wake Forest, @ N.C. State, Clemson, and Maine.

Let's look at what the schedule could ideally look like:

Aug. 30 -- @ UMass Minutemen

Sept. 6 --  Maine Black Bears
Sept. 13 -- USC Trojans
Sept. 20 --  @ Virginia Tech Hokies
Sept. 27 -- Colorado St. Rams (Parents' Weekend)

Oct. 4 -- BYE
Oct. 11 -- @ Florida St. Seminoles
Oct. 18 -- Louisville Cardinals
Oct. 25 -- Pittsburgh Panthers

Nov. 1 -- @ N.C. State Wolfpack (Thursday or Friday night game)
Nov. 8 -- BYE
Nov. 15 -- Clemson Tigers
Nov. 22 -- @ Wake Forest Demon Deacons
Nov. 29 -- Syracuse Orange

So here is my rationale on this. First off, you get UMass during Labor Day weekend. I would want to see BC play Maine on Parent's Weekend, but if the school keeps a similar schedule to last season it looks like Colorado St. would fall in that slot.

Looking at the way I set up the schedule, I hope that USC / Clemson / Florida State all occur in different months. They are all teams that are stacked, and it would behoove BC if they were spread out. Also I tried to throw BYE weeks in there as well to give BC some time to breathe after playing a Top 25 team.

In terms of spreading out the home games, here is how I divvied it up. One game in August (UMass counts as a home), three in September, two in October and two in November. No long stretches without a home game in 2014. Also pray that if BC gets a Friday/Thursday night game that it is an away game this year, so hence I threw them on a week night against the Wolfpack.

Of course, this is all hypothetical at this point. We shall see soon what the real schedule will look like.