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Boston College Vs. The Pac-12: Intersectional Matchups Few And Far Between

This weekend's game at USC, the first of a home-and-home that will bring the Trojans to Chestnut Hill the following season, is quite the rare occurrence.

By Brian F.
Stephen Dunn

The other night I was digging around cfbtrivia.com looking for some stats about Boston College's upcoming matchup with the USC Trojans when one particular statistic caught my attention. The Eagles have hooked up with current members of the Pac-12 on the gridiron just 10 times in program history. That's it. 10 games.

Here are those games:

L - Stanford 33, Boston College 14 (Sep. 29, 1979)
W - Boston College 30, Stanford 13 (Sep. 20, 1980)
W - Boston College 21, California 15 (Sep. 13, 1986)
L - USC 23, Boston College 17 (Sep. 19, 1987)
L - USC 34, Boston College 7 (Sep. 1, 1988)
L - Colorado 62, Boston College 28 (Dec. 31, 1999)
W - Boston College 31, Arizona State 17 (Dec. 25, 2000)
L - Stanford 38, Boston College 22 (Sep. 8, 2001)
W - Boston College 34, Stanford 27 (Sep. 7, 2002)
L - USC 24, Boston College 13 (Dec. 26, 2009)

Three of those 10 games were bowl game matchups following the 1999 (Insight.com vs. Colorado), 2000 (Aloha vs. Arizona State) and 2009 (Emerald vs. USC) seasons, so BC has only ever scheduled four home-and-homes with PAC-12 opponents*. So this weekend's game at USC, the first of a home-and-home that will bring the Trojans to Chestnut Hill the following season, is quite the rare occurrence.

It's not just BC that has just a few all-time meetings with current PAC-12 opponents. Of the 14 programs in the ACC, nine of them have played the PAC-12 just 10 times or fewer.

Program GP HW HL HT AW AL AT NW NL NT
Pittsburgh Panthers 49 10 7 0 9 13 0 4 6 0
Syracuse Orange 30 8 3 0 4 7 0 5 3 0
Miami Hurricanes 26 7 5 0 5 5 0 0 4 0
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 17 2 4 0 1 4 0 4 2 0
Duke Blue Devils 13 2 2 0 1 5 1 0 2 0
Boston College Eagles 10 3 1 0 0 3 0 1 2 0
North Carolina Tar Heels 10 2 1 0 3 2 0 0 2 0
Louisville Cardinals 9 2 2 0 1 4 0 0 0 0
Florida St. Seminoles 8 2 0 0 3 1 0 2 0 0
Clemson Tigers 5 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 2 0
N.C. State Wolfpack 5 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 1 0
Wake Forest Demon Deacons 5 1 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 0
Virginia Cavaliers 4 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0
Virginia Tech Hokies 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0
Totals 194 39 27 0 28 51 1 21 27 0

The lack of meetings between Boston College and the PAC-12 is surprising considering how many students come to BC from California and the west coast. As per 2012 undergraduate enrollment data, California accounted for 629 undergrads, placing the state fifth behind only Massachusetts (2,282), New York (1,363), New Jersey (958) and Connecticut (665).

The growth is also pretty astounding. In 1980, Massachusetts accounted for nearly 49 percent of the undergrad student body, while California accounted for 0.6 percent. Thirty plus years later, the percentage of students coming out of Mass. is down to 25 percent, while the percentage from California is nearly 7 percent. The PAC-12 is also home to the four most high-profile college football teams in the California.

It's my hope that Brad Bates sees the value that these intersectional BC vs. PAC-12 games represent while attending this weekend's game in Los Angeles. Not only to placate West Coast alumni but also for the TV exposure generated from the game (when games aren't relegated to the PAC-12 Network, anyway) and on the recruiting trail. With a future non-conference schedule light on fellow BCS AQ and peer schools, it would be great to end up with more non-conference home-and-home series with PAC-12 programs like Cal, Stanford, UCLA and USC.

* Supposedly the Chestnut Hill return trip of a Cal home-and-home was cancelled, though I'm not aware of the circumstances surrounding this cancellation. If you know, please chime in in the comments section.

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