Boston College Announces GameDay Location, Parking Exception, Tailgating Times For Saturday vs. Clemson

Boston College released a few pieces of information this afternoon for this Saturday’s game against Clemson.

First up was the announcement of where ESPN College GameDay will be set up, which was revealed to be the Stokes Lawn. That’s basically the Dustbowl, for you BC Alumni who haven’t been to campus in a little while. There was some question as to whether GameDay would set up in the same location as it had in the past given the smaller size of the Dustbowl’s green space with the new Stokes Hall taking up some real estate, but there’s definitely still plenty of room (and it’s also the most beautiful place on campus).

To accommodate the people coming to see College GameDay live and in person, BC announced that parking will be allowed in the Beacon Street Garage from 7am until 1pm. College GameDay will broadcast live from 9am until 12pm EST from campus, but keep in mind that per the release, all vehicles must be out of the garage by 1pm or you risk being towed.

Finally, there is good and bad news regarding the tailgating situation. The good news is that as a one-time exception, tailgating will be allowed in your usual tailgating location starting an hour early (!), 4pm, which gives you a good 3-3.5 hours of tailgating (because remember, you’re leaving your tailgate with a half hour to go before kickoff to get into the stadium on time, and if you’re not, then you’re an ass and you’re part of the problem with BC’s national perception — just calling it like I see it).

The bad news, unfortunately, is that it’s going to be a very difficult situation if you want to come to GameDay and then tailgate afterward. There is a three hour stretch of time between when the garage must be emptied (1pm) and when tailgating can begin (4pm) where you need to get your car somewhere else and kill some time. That’s — let’s call a spade a spade here — pretty embarrassing, but BC’s hands are tied with this sort of thing. Just getting the extra hour of tailgating is a bona fide miracle given how impossible it is for BC to pull this off with the neighbors. So Martin Jarmond can definitely check off another box on his BC Immortality bingo card.

If you aren’t tailgating in your own spot, however, keep in mind that you can set yourself up for a pretty full and badass day by parking down at Riverside Station in Newton, taking the T to the Chestnut Hill or Reservoir stop, and walking the scenic ¹⁄₃ of a mile to campus for GameDay before meandering around the most beautiful campus in America for the rest of the day before kickoff.

ESPN College GameDay starts at 9am and runs until noon, with Boston College vs. Clemson on Saturday Night Football kicking off at 8pm on ABC.