Boston College/UConn At Fenway Is A Home Run For Eagles

Yesterday Boston College and UConn announced that they were moving their 2017 match up from Rentschler Field in East Hartford, to the friendly confines of Fenway Park in Boston. This is absolutely a great move for Boston College, and I have no problems with this decision, even if I am not a fan of non-baseball related games and activities at Fenway Park.

Of course there were some quick reactions, not all of them very positive, so let’s me address each dissenting point:

Why Would BC Give Up A Home Game? They didn’t, it’s a UConn home game. If you hear someone say that or read it on Twitter, please correct that person, because having to hear this misinformation for the next 10 months is going to get really old. Next question.

UConn Is The Home Team, Why Let Them Plant A Flag Three Miles From Campus: Listen folks, this is very different than when Notre Dame played here in 2015. There are plenty of Irish fans to fill Fenway, they are a national brand that of course would cause interest with the local and national population when they played in Boston. UConn is not that, and they won’t be that. According to reports the Huskies are only getting 22,000 of the roughly 39k seats, the other 17 going to the Fenway Group and Boston College. I guarantee UConn fans will not fill up those 22k seats, so any notion of a home field advantage is nonsense.

But, but what if the Huskies win? They won’t, I guarantee it (30-0). If you saw the game last year (30-0), you know that the Huskies are in the process of a massive rebuild, and being that they are UConn and not Alabama/Notre, Randy Edsall won’t be a magic pill that’ll fix them in a year. Boston College is a far superior team (30-0), and will most likely knock them around again in 2017. (30-0)

Is BC paying them to move this game? No. According to SID Jason Baum on Twitter last night, Boston College didn’t pay a cent to have the game moved. That only logically means that the Fenway group paid to have it moved.

But I really wanted to go to the Rent. The only people who have a semi legitimate argument are those who wanted to go to the game to tailgate with friends who live in the Hartford area. But that’s where my compassion stops. Here is what you do now, save a little cash, get your friends to stay in Boston, and hit up the local bars. Anyone else who says they really wanted to go to the Rent because it’s a “great place to see a game”, is either a liar or needs to get out more.

As long as Boston College doesn’t make games at Fenway a regular habit, I have no problem with a few every now and then. Going to Fenway Park is an infinitely better option than heading to the Rent, and with more tickets going to BC fans it should be a little more cost effective than it was against Notre Dame. In one fell swoop this game has gone from an away game against a lesser opponent, to a bonafide home game in a special location.

Congratulations to Brad Bates and crew for pulling in a 7th game, and one that the coaching staff can sell to recruits. I give the administration a lot of grief here on BCI, but this is not one of those times. They hit an absolute home run on this one.

30-0.