Phil Steele Has BC 87th In Returning Starts For 2016

One of the most interesting and potentially important stats going into a season is returning starters. Phil Steele, one of the best and comprehensive minds in all of college football, yearly puts out a bevy of stats, and today he released his returning starts. The formula needs a little explaining, so here it is directly from Steele’s site:

To formulate a point system, I awarded 3 points for every senior starter (2.5 for every additional senior in the two deep) 2 points for every junior starter (1.5 for every additional junior in the two deep) 1 point for a sophomore starter (0.5 for every additional soph in the two deep) then subtracted 1 point for every frosh starter and .5 for every frosh in the two deep. The total points column uses that formula to figure out the points awarded to a team

Boston College came in at 87th this season according to this formula, with a grand total of 62 points. To give you some perspective, last season Boston College was 121st, so at least in terms of returning starts the Eagles are trending in the right direction. For a team that doesn’t bring in many (any) blue chip recruits, it’s important for the team to gel and gain experience, so that appears to be a positive going into 2016.

Other teams BC will be facing this year on this list include:

18. UConn Huskies : 75 points
37. Louisville Cardinals: 70 points
48. UMass Minutemen: 68 points
57. N.C. State: 66.5 points
76. Buffalo Bison: 63.0 points
93. Syracuse Orange: 61.0 points
102. Virginia Tech: 59.0 points
112. Georgia Tech: 56.0 points
117. Wake Forest: 55.0 points
121. Florida State: 53.0 points
128. Clemson: 45.0 points

That would put BC roughly in the middle of their current schedule in terms of returning starts.