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Yesterday’s formal release of the Boston College hockey schedule on BCEagles.com revealed little in the way of new information, as most of it had already been made available by other schools.
However, we did learn game times for BC’s home games; while most are the standard 7 PM, there are a few matinees over the course of the year, including one notable one: the BC vs. BU home game at Conte Forum, which will be played at 3 PM on MLK Day, Monday, January 16.
This move has its pros and cons. Because classes resume on Tuesday the 17th, students will presumably be back and able to go, which will be a welcome change after two years of BC/BU being played while most students were away. The 3 PM game also becomes a nice take for people who have kids with the day off.
3 PM is not so great if you don’t get MLK Day off of work, which certainly applies to a lot of people.
TV details for the upcoming season will be released at a later date. We don’t know if maybe the move to 3 PM helps fit the game in to a TV window. That would make sense.
The really odd thing, now that all the schedules are out, is that there are no conflicts with basketball that would prevent BC from being able to play this game on the Saturday night. The only two possible explanations are either for TV or to ensure more students are back.
As we’ve acknowledged here before, scheduling is hard. But once Hockey East gets out of the pre-set schedule cycle that ends this year (and as they re-vamp the whole thing now that Notre Dame is leaving), it shouldn’t be too hard to stick to one first principle: keep it simple with your very best rivalries. Friday night, Saturday night, home-and-home while school is in session. That shouldn’t be too hard, should it?