Boston College Baseball Vs. Miami (NCAA Super Regionals): Miami Is One Of Baseball's Gold Standard Programs

Regardless of how you feel about Notre Dame football, their history shows more than a few incontrovertible facts.

First, they're highly successful. The Irish have claims to anywhere from eight to 13 national championships (depending on your views of football polls from the early 20th century). They are among the highest in college football in winning percentage, wins, and number of players drafted to the NFL. There's All-Americans, legends, and ghosts. Their players are just as legendary as their coaches, and they have the history built on incredible tradition that, in essence, you're also playing against whenever you play against them.

They have swagger. When you win that many games, it's not so much about winning but how you win. They know they're going to win and win often. Their fans know they're going to win and win often. When they walk, it's moreso a quiet confidence than an arrogance. While one can be perceived as the other, it's not necessarily a bad thing to know how good you are and be able to tell people at what levels you can compete.

Miami baseball isn't so much good as it is confident that it can win every game - and usually does. The Hurricanes have won no fewer than 37 baseball games since joining the ACC in 2005. The last time they finished below .500 was 1957 when they went 11-12 under manager Jimmie Foxx (yes, that Jimmie Foxx). They haven't missed the national tournament since 1972, and they've played only about a dozen districts or regionals outside of Coral Gables.

They've been to 24 College World Series and won four national championships. Their head coach, Jim Morris, is over 1,000 wins at Miami alone. They have 44 First-Team All-Americans across their history, and in just about a decade in the ACC, they've already produced two Players of the Year. Their media guide has multiple pages dedicated to how many guys per franchise played in Major League Baseball (Pat Burrell, Ryan Braun, and some guy named Piazza ring a bell?).

And like Notre Dame football, there's a conference affiliation joke to be made. Until they joined the ACC, Miami competed as an independent in baseball. The program began in 1940, then stopped play until after World War II. Starting with 1946 and continuing straight up through the 2004 season, the Canes didn't play as members of a league, not even when their other sports played in the Big East. When they joined the ACC in time for the '05 baseball season, all of that changed.

As a result, you won't find a storied history with Boston College; the Eagles never actually played the Hurricanes before the 2003 season. There's no deep storyline dating back 30 years like in football, and Miami and BC almost never crossed paths until they absolutely had to. Since 2003, they've played only 24 times, and Miami won the first seven in a row. BC's first wins against the Hurricanes came in 2009, when they beat them once during the season and then again in the ACC Tournament.

In Coral Gables, Boston College holds only one win - a 3-0 victory on March 12, 2010. The last time the Eagles were there was in 2014, and Miami swept them. So if you're looking for a hint of rivalry, perhaps the only thing you'll be able to find is the 2013 season, when the 12-40 Eagles somehow managed to inexplicably win two out of three from the Canes for their first conference wins of the season.

When people think of Miami, they think of the football traditions. They think of Hail Flutie and the Brian St. Pierre interception that Ed Reed is still probably running with. They think of Miami winning that game to become bowl eligible against the Eagles with Larry Coker, and they think of a long, long drought of wins ending when Matt Ryan finally blew away the Canes. In baseball, that's not the case.

Miami won't consider Boston College a rival. They have a heated, hated rivalry with Florida State, with Florida International, and with Florida Atlantic. They have a team build almost exclusively from the Sunshine State, though they have one player in Alex MacDonagh who is from Milton, Massachusetts. Their fans probably think this is going to be a walkthrough since they won the ACC regular season championship, and a driven Hurricanes team is capable of reaching Omaha against pretty much anyone - so really they  actually have a point.

The Miami Hurricanes are one of the nation's gold standard baseball teams. The Road to Omaha goes directly through Coral Gables, the sands, and the palm trees. It goes directly through Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field. It goes directly through one of the best teams in college baseball.

There isn't a rivalry here...at least not yet.