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UPDATE 1:00PM: Boston College has released a statement that very clearly spells out the weather, mechanical, and logistical issues that forced cancellation of the game. In addition, the Eagles were willing to play the game at 9pm ET this evening or to play at any time on Sunday, and Texas A&M declined:
Statement on Men's Basketball game at Texas A&Mhttps://t.co/hoUPScrdxg
— Boston College Men's Basketball (@BCMBB) December 8, 2018
BREAKING: Boston College at Texas A&M, originally scheduled for today at 6pm EST, has been cancelled due to travel issues for the BC team.
SCHEDULE ALERT
— Texas A&M Basketball (@aggiembk) December 8, 2018
Tonight's game against Boston College has been cancelled.
https://t.co/NlvVA15qEt#GigEm pic.twitter.com/y4CX11Hh2s
It’s a pretty bizarre situation and we’re awaiting official word on what happened. The only information available as of 12:15pm EST is via the BC Men’s Basketball twitter account.
Yesterday evening at 5:10pm, the team tweeted that there had been a “slight alteration” to their travel itinerary:
5:10 pm ET | After a slight alteration to today’s travel itinerary, the Eagles have departed campus and are en route to Hanscom Field. #WeAreBC
— Boston College Men's Basketball (@BCMBB) December 7, 2018
Shortly thereafter, the Eagles (somewhat hilariously) tweeted that they went to the wrong airport, with their bus going to Hanscom Air Force Base instead of Hanscom Field in Bedford, the team’s usual point of departure for charters. The base and the municipal air field are basically right next to each other, so that probably wasn’t a major factor — but even at that point it seemed like their charter arrangements were still up in the air (no pun intended):
6:23 on ET | After a slight GPS glitch that sent us to Hanscom Air Force Base, we have arrived at Hanscom Field. Awaiting further air craft logistics. #WeAreBC
— Boston College Men's Basketball (@BCMBB) December 7, 2018
An hour later, the team tweeted a screenshot of the weather situation around Houston, the team’s arrival airport for the trip to College Station, showing some significant weather issues...
7:31 pm ET | Weather update from the tower: yellow is bad; red is worse. pic.twitter.com/TunrvFhu6p
— Boston College Men's Basketball (@BCMBB) December 8, 2018
...and joked (well, I’m sure they weren’t exactly in a humorous mood) that “Climate Change” was responsible for their predicament, implying weather-related travel difficulties:
Climate change
— Boston College Men's Basketball (@BCMBB) December 8, 2018
So, to summarize — from what we can piece together, weather appears to have been a factor, which may have forced the charter to attempt to scramble last-minute travel arrangements. Since extra charter airplanes aren’t exactly laying around for use on no notice, it’s possible that caused some logistical issues for the charter company, and the problems may have been further compounded by weather difficulties in Houston preventing them from leaving Bedford.
This is all just conjecture from a few tweets, but one way or another it does seem likely that weather and charter logistics were involved. It could also be that BC’s alternative travel arrangements just may not have allowed them to get to College Station in time for the game, or at least without getting any sleep.
This article will be updated once we have some more official information from Boston College regarding what happened.