According to the Purdue Rivals.com affiliate GoldandBlack.com, Boston College will travel to West Lafayette, Indiana to take on the Purdue Boilermakers as part of the 15th annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Or is it Big Ten/ACC Challenge this year? I always get the two confused.
According to a source, #Purdue will host Boston College Dec. 4 in the #B1G/ACC Challenge.
— GoldandBlack.com (@GoldandBlackcom) May 8, 2013
Boston College and Purdue have met two times previously with the Boilermakers winning both matchups. The two programs last met in 2008 at MSG, a 71-64 victory for the then-ninth ranked Boilermakers. Purdue is coming off a 16-18 campaign which snapped a run of six straight NCAA Tournament appearances. This will be the two programs first meeting in the Challenge and first on either's home floor.
A road game at Purdue adds to an already beefed up road/neutral non-conference schedule likely to include two of UCONN / Indiana / Washington in the 2K Sports Classic, as well as games against Virginia Commonwealth (Brooklyn at Barclays), Harvard, Providence, UMass (at the Garden), USC and Auburn.
I'm all for strengthening the non-conference portion of the schedule this season but this leaves little room for any non-conference home games. Like, four games -- two of which will be reserved for the regional round of the 2K Sports Classic. Perhaps that's by design, not only to improve the Eagles' postseason resume numbers but also to improve on the league's worst per-game attendance in 2012-13.
Regardless, that's not the best news for loyal season ticket holders.
This year will mark the Eagles' eighth appearance in the Challenge. Boston College (6-1) is tied with Duke (12-2) for best winning percentage all-time in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
W - Boston College 65, Michigan State 58 (Nov. 29, 2006)
W - Boston College 77, Michigan 64 (Nov. 28, 2007)
W - Boston College 57, Iowa 55 (Dec. 2, 2008)
W - Boston College 62, Michigan 58 (Dec. 2, 2009)
W - Boston College 88, Indiana 76 (Dec. 1, 2010)
L - Penn State 62, Boston College 54 (Nov. 30, 2011)
W - Boston College 73, Penn State 61 (Nov. 28, 2012)
The pairings and matchups for the 2013 ACC/Big Ten Challenge have slowly started to leak today with an official announcement scheduled for 2 p.m. today.
For more on Purdue, check out Hammer and Rails.