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Brad Bates has his detractors, but even his biggest critics would have to agree that he’s on a roll with football scheduling.
Bates has now scheduled a total of five opponents in the past calendar year, three of them P5s:
UConn, announced exactly a year ago on October 12th, 2015
Purdue, announced in January
Stanford*, announced in June
Temple, announced in July
and now Missouri, announced yesterday.
*okay, maybe Bates should give us credit for this one
That is a quality set of games. Prior to these, Bates also scheduled Northern Illinois, UMass, and Holy Cross — opponents that, when looked at in conjunction with the rest of the teams BC football has scheduled, do a good job of rounding out the ideal BC football schedule: a Power 5 opponent (Purdue, Stanford, Missouri), a couple Group Of 5 opponents (UConn, Temple, Northern Illinois), and a “guarantee” game (UMass, Holy Cross). The Notre Dame series was also scheduled by Bates prior to the Irish cycling through the ACC schedule.
Bates took a ton of criticism for all the MAC-level games he had scheduled early on, but those with cooler heads realized that it was all part of a larger set of games yet to be put in the books. Even those mid- and low-level opponents are the right opponents: Temple, UConn, UMass, and Holy Cross are all teams in the northeast that make for easy road trips and games with at least some intrigue. And whether you’d like to admit it or not, the UConn game is going to be one that gets your blood boiling.
These Power 5 games get scheduled years and years in advance, and with so few options, they’re by far the most difficult to get to work. While it did take Bates a little while to get rolling while he established himself as an AD at Boston College, he’s caught up very nicely with three P5 opponents scheduled in 2016 alone. The Eagles now have their Power 5 requirement sewn up through 2025, with the Stanford series booked for 2028-2029 as well.
Whether you like Brad Bates’ entire body of work as AD or not, his football scheduling now has to be looked at as being pretty good. Anyone who says otherwise at this point is starting to look like someone who hates Brad Bates for the sake of hating Brad Bates.