2019 BC Bowl Projections: Grading The Possibilities

So now that Steve Addazio has been fired, we can all be excited about BC making a bowl game, right?? The college football season is short and now we’ve got another month of the season to look forward to. And none of you need to root against BC to hope that the coach gets fired! Exciting!

Let’s do a quick bounce around the internet to see where the prognosticators think Boston College will be heading for the bowl season. You’ll quickly see that there’s lots of consensus on where the Eagles will likely be headed.

ESPN — Mark Schlabach
Birmingham, AL: Birmingham Bowl vs. Cincinnati

Location: C-
Opponent: B+
Bowl Prestige: C-
Overall: C+

This would be fine. Birmingham’s weather is at least halfway decent (it’ll probably be in the 50s/60s), so that’s nice. And it’s not named after a goofy sounding sponsor. But it’s... Birmingham. I’ve never been (because nobody has), but I doubt there’s all that much to do there unless you want to go to Talladega or something for a track tour. Yeehaw.

Cincinnati is an AAC team, which I guess is a little better than playing the MAC, but they’re also pretty darn good. They’re 10-2 and ranked #20 heading into their conference championship game against Memphis. The most fascinating thing about this matchup is that it would feature BC playing against Luke Fickell, who has been tied to the BC football coaching search.

This would probably be one of the more winnable games we’d have a chance to play against a ranked opponent, so this could definitely be worse. Joe Giglio and Stewart Mandel both have the Eagles in Birmingham against Cincy as well, so this one might have some legs.

ESPN — Kyle Bonagura
Detroit, MI: Quick Lane Bowl vs. Indiana

Location: C+
Opponent: B
Bowl Prestige: C+
Overall: B-

Boston College could do worse than this. The Quick Lane Bowl isn’t exactly a primo bowl destination, but the Big Ten tie-in makes it for a solid option. Detroit was surprisingly fun back in 2010 when BC headed out there for the Frozen Four (also played at Ford Field), and at least there are things to do as long as you don’t get shot. The game is indoors, so there are no weather worries — neither from the cold nor from lightning.

Indiana makes for a fun opponent since it’s a Big Ten school that the Eagles haven’t played since way back in 1938, which the Eagles won 14-0. The forward pass still hasn’t made its way to Chestnut Hill in all these years since, so it would be a neat throwback game.

Yahoo Sports
Detroit, MI: Quick Lane Bowl vs. Illinois

Location: C+
Opponent: B
Bowl Prestige: C+
Overall: B-

This is a very similar, solid matchup possibility for BC, as there’s some fun from playing against the Illini given that the two teams have somehow never faced each other. All in all, Illinois or Indiana would be pretty similar from an interest perspective being unfamiliar teams from the Big Ten.

Bleacher Report
Detroit, MI: Quick Lane Bowl vs. Michigan State

Location: C+
Opponent: B+
Bowl Prestige: C+
Overall: B

More Quick Lane, but now we’re talking with a very solid opponent. This would be a rematch of the 2007 Champs Sports Bowl that the Eagles won with Matt Ryan to finish the season in the top ten of the polls.

The Spartans are just 6-6, so there’s a little less luster in playing them this time around, but it would also give us a winnable game against a Power 5 opponent. Not a bad option at all.

247 Sports also has the Eagles in Detroit with this matchup, as well as CBS Sports.

College Football News
Detroit, MI: Quick Lane Bowl vs. Toledo

Location: C+
Opponent: D
Bowl Prestige: C+
Overall: C-

Toledo would be kind of lame — an uninspiring 6-6 team from the MAC — so the lack of a Power 5 opponent would make a Quick Lane Bowl trip look a lot less appealing for BC, even though the teams haven’t played each other since 2002. But on the bright side, this would be a game that BC would almost certainly be favored in? Yay?

Athlon Sports
Detroit, MI: Quick Lane Bowl vs. Central Michigan

Location: C+
Opponent: D+
Bowl Prestige: C+
Overall: C

Central Michigan is a better team than Toledo is at 8-4, but they are still coming from the MAC and no one’s going to be too excited about playing directional whoever in Detroit in what would basically a home game for the Chippewas.

The two teams also just played in 2017, so there’s not a newness factor either, and this would absolutely be a game that BC would probably be overconfident in. CMU is decent. Let’s hope this one doesn’t happen.

Those are all the major websites, so Detroit or Birmingham seem to be by far the most likely landing spots for BC. But it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see the Eagles end up in the Military Bowl as well, where there may not be projections with the Eagles in Annapolis but there are some rumblings. That would see the Eagles likely face off against UCF or Temple or Navy, the latter of which wouldn’t be too bad.

We could also get a total curveball like last year, when BC was swapped out to the First Responder Bowl in Dallas despite that not being an ACC tie-in. Absolutely nobody saw that one coming, though that doesn’t happen too often.

We’re not too far out from learning BC’s bowl destination — expect to hear in the day or two following the conference championship games this weekend!