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So I'm not going to lie, I'm not really feeling the animosity for Syracuse that some people feel. I don't know... maybe it's because I wasn't a student in the Big East days (though I did follow BC). Maybe it's because I'm not a basketball guy. I don't know. I enjoy having a Northern rivalry with Syracuse in the ACC, and certainly find games against them to be exciting, but they don't really get my dander up. But that's not the case for half of the voting panel of the BCI Awards. So, Syracuse gets the nod for most hated opponent of the year.
Obviously, it hurt to lose out on the big ORANGE-EAGLE TROPHY. But I'm sure we'll get that back this year, and can restore a more fitting disliked opponent to their throne as most hated opponent for the 2014-2015 BCI Awards.
As you'll see below, there were two votes for "Syracuse Football" and two votes for "Syracuse" in general, so I felt fair was fair and added them up to make Syracuse the winner, although I personally voted for Notre Dame men's hockey, who specifically racked up 3 votes themselves.
The Final Vote
Syracuse - 4 (2 for Syracuse football, 2 for "Syracuse in general")
Notre Dame Men's Hockey - 3
Penn State - 1
Comments from the Panel
"Notre Dame hockey. Between their freaking goalie knocking the net out every time BC had a scoring chance to that god forsaken HEA quarterfinals, I had my fill of those stupid gold helmets." - A.J. Black
"ND hockey. From their style of play to their bitching about the refs to obviously knocking us out of the HE tournament." =Anonymous voter
"Syracuse in general. Between the football loss and the basketball win, it cemented a pretty good rivalry. I always considered Syracuse a big rival in the old Big East, and I'm glad that the ACC can bring that back. And it'll make it that much sweeter when the Orange Eagle comes home next year." -Dan Rubin
"In any other year the default is BU, but they were so bad this year it wasn't a proper rivalry. As someone who wasn't here back when we used to play Syracuse all the time, I had *no idea* Syracuse fans could be so obnoxious. So yes, Syracuse football gets my vote as well." -Grant Salzano
"I'm going to say Penn State because we technically played them in hockey this year and their Twitterluminati was annoying as hell a couple weekends ago." -Anonymous voter
Next Up:
Game of the Year (Football) - Tomorrow, 9 AM
Schedule and Awardees
Monday, July 21
-Best Female Athlete - McKenzie Meehan, Women's Soccer
Tuesday, July 22
-Best Male Athlete - Andre Williams, Football
-Best Individual Performance in a Game - Andre Williams vs. NC State
Wednesday, July 23
-Coach of the Year - Steve Addazio, Football
-Team of the Year - Men's Hockey
Thursday, July 24
-Best Moment of the Year - BC Football Senior Day vs. NC State
-Worst Moment of the Year - BC Football's Last-Second Loss at Syracuse
Friday, July 25
-Play of the Year - Ryan Fitzgerald's Goal against UML
-BCI Post of the Year - Super Andre Williams
Monday, July 28
-Biggest Story of the Year - Win for DK
-Most Disliked Opponent of the Year - Syracuse
Tuesday, July 29
-Game of the Year (football)
-Game of the Year (men's hockey)
Wednesday, July 30
-Game of the Year (men's basketball)
-Game of the Year (all other sports)