2023 Red Bandanna Game will be Boston College vs Florida State

On Thursday morning, Boston College football announced that it will hold its annual Red Bandanna Game against Florida State on Saturday September 16th with a kickoff at 12pm ET. Florida State is expected to be one of the ACC’s best teams this season and a darkhorse contender for a College Football Playoff bid, so a nationally-televised game on ABC against FSU is sure to get a lot of attention on BC for its annual memorial for Welles Crowther.

For those who do not know the story, Boston College’s annual Red Bandanna game is held each football season to honor 9/11 hero Welles Crowther, a BC alum who heroically sacrificed himself to save many lives during the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center buildings on September 11th, 2001. You can learn more about Welles Crowther’s story by watching the full documentary here.

Holding this game in September near the anniversary of the attacks is actually a bit of an oddity for BC. The game has often been held at different points in the year, like last year in October against Clemson or in 2021 in November against Virginia Tech. Boston College has a very middling record on Red Bandana night historically, going 4-5 overall since the tradition began in 2014 when the Eagles upset #9 USC.