Beanpot Weather Update: Game On For Now, But Stay Tuned

Boston College and Boston University are set for the 2016 Beanpot final tonight, unless Mother Nature foils the plan.

Snow has begun to fall in Massachusetts and the latest projections call for several hours of blizzard conditions with total accumulation ranging from 6-10 inches in greater Boston.

The good news, if you're rooting for the game to be played as scheduled, is that the weather should die down at around 6 PM and the snowfall totals aren't too severe (though it's possible we end up with over 10 inches depending on the storm's track).

The bad news is that most of the touchstones that would make me worry about the game have happened. Boston canceled school and declared a state of emergency/parking ban. The state has also declared an emergency and shuttered courthouses today. Given all of that, the optics of letting the Beanpot move forward might not look great.

That said, as of right now, the MBTA is still up and running, and that's probably the real key. I'm told that last year the teams were willing to take the treacherous bus ride to TD Garden but it was the shutdown of the T that led officials to pull the plug, fearing 10,000+ folks driving to the Garden and parking with no public transport available. If the T doesn't melt down before noon or so, we could be OK.

A complicating factor is the Garden's schedule. There is a free date on Thursday night, though that would require BC and BU to play games on three consecutive nights. After that there are no open dates until March—after the start of the HEA tournament. The Beanpot hasn't been pushed to March since the Blizzard of '78.

Stay tuned to BCI for updates.