Boston College Athletics
December 07, 2023 | Football, #ForBoston Files
BC and SMU carry headlines from around the country to their bowl game on Dec. 28.
Wednesday morning brought the first signs of winter to a New England region that enjoyed a lighter and more mild fall season. An ocean effect storm that would likely bring two feet of wet, heavy snow to January or February meekly dropped the first inches on the Atlantic Ocean coastline, to which Boston awoke and commuted to work with gentle snowflakes littering the air as it stuck to roadways and bounced off buildings and homes.
The encroachment converted the region into the first signs of its wintry hunkering, but at Boston College, the cold weather did nothing to deter a football team from moving towards Fish Field House for its return to the gridiron. Two weeks after the end of the season and four years since their last completed bowl game, the Eagles weren't sitting inside and enjoying cozy heated blankets. Instead, they were readying for practice while preparing for the 2023 Wasabi Fenway Bowl matchup against Southern Methodist.
"We're excited to go to a bowl game and represent Boston while doing it in Boston," said head coach Jeff Hafley. "There's a great hotel setup in an awesome area where there's a lot of stuff to do, and we're going to build the week around doing some fun things with the team that will be some team-building activities. It's a newer bowl, and I'm sure they're going to do an incredible job in a great city."
Sending BC to a bowl based in Boston felt like a foregone conclusion with the team's natural fit in its backyard, but the Eagles entered this past weekend with the same uncertainty as the rest of the ACC after the College Football Playoff selection committee shockingly omitted Florida State following the Seminoles' 16-6 win over Louisville on Saturday night.
It had touched off a firestorm created by seventh-ranked Texas' win in the Big 12 Championship, and it compounded the controversial questions about No. 1 Georgia's loss to No. 8 Alabama in the SEC Championship. Nobody knew that the committee would choose either team over an undefeated Florida State team, but the temporary slide to No. 5 after quarterback Jordan Travis' injury foreshadowed the tradewinds enveloping the conversation about which teams deserved a shot at the playoff.
Georgia couldn't rightfully earn a spot over Alabama after losing to the Crimson Tide, but the Bulldogs had a stronger regular season performance than every team short of Michigan. Ohio State likewise wasn't an option after the Michigan loss cost the Buckeyes a trip to the Big Ten conference championship, and Oregon's loss to Washington brought a second defeat to the Pacific Northwest opposite the undefeated Seminoles.
The fallout from not picking FSU was swift, but it created a butterfly effect within the ACC's bowl selection process because the conference was still contractually obligated to send its best available representative to the Orange Bowl. With FSU knocked out of the playoff, Louisville dropped back into the bowl selection process and jammed the ACC's top tier while the annual matchup between the No. 5 and No. 6 teams in the CFP poll necessitated Georgia's addition to the game in South Florida.
That top tier resulted in several different outcomes after the bowl selection narrowed. Louisville went to the Holiday Bowl to play Southern California, and No. 18 NC State stayed east to play in the Pop Tarts Bowl against No. 25 Kansas State. No. 16 Notre Dame fell into the ACC's bowl selection lineup to play in the Sun Bowl against No. 19 Oregon State, and Miami, North Carolina, Duke, BC and Syracuse were left to figure out which teams would contend for which bowl spots.
"We're looking forward to playing another game," Hafley said. "We've had a bunch of practices, and our guys have been in really good spirits. There's a lot of positive energy, and they want to get better, and that's really the best thing about a bowl game. We're on the road recruiting, but we'll fly back by Friday or Saturday and be with the guys while getting the young guys a ton of work. When we get back for good, we'll have a whole week's worth of practice before we get ready for the game."
The full breakdown was exciting to Hafley and the BC roster, but SMU's placement offered another wrinkle to a selection process that awards one automatic bid to the New Year's Six to the best-ranked team from a Group of Five conference. Saturday had started with Tulane narrowly holding that spot over Liberty, but the Green Wave's loss to SMU in the American Athletic Conference championship opened the door to the automatic spot. In the end, the Flames' undefeated record won out despite Liberty not playing a single game against a power conference team, and the two-loss Mustangs, who previously lost to Oklahoma and TCU, defaulted to the AAC's bid to the Fenway Bowl.
"The process was kind of just about waiting," said Hafley. "There are tiers where people pick, and then I kind of find out where we're going and who we're playing. I was really excited about SMU because they're a top-25 team. They have great players, they're well coached, and they're going to be an ACC opponent next year. I'm excited about it, I thought it would be a good matchup, and our players were excited to have a game against a team that a lot of people thought was going to go to a New Year's Six bowl game."
Those underlying storylines underscore the importance facing a winter morning kickoff at America's Most Beloved Ballpark. It's technically a neutral site game, but SMU has an opportunity to defeat a power conference opponent in its own backyard. It's a game at Fenway Park, but Boston College is still going to experience its home city in a way that it's never seen before while competing against another championship-caliber opponent that will eventually make its way to Boston as part of the ACC.
In many ways, it's the perfect way to end a college football season that's included all of the requisite drama required for a memorable finish.
"It's not like our players or I are downtown every single day," Hafley said, "so I'm sure there are a lot of new things that we're going to see and do. It'll be great for our families and the players, and they're going to do an awesome job with it. I'm really excited."
The 2023 Wasabi Fenway Bowl kicks off at 11 a.m. on December 28, 2023 from Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. The game will be televised on ESPN with online streaming available through the network's platform of Internet and mobile device apps.
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The encroachment converted the region into the first signs of its wintry hunkering, but at Boston College, the cold weather did nothing to deter a football team from moving towards Fish Field House for its return to the gridiron. Two weeks after the end of the season and four years since their last completed bowl game, the Eagles weren't sitting inside and enjoying cozy heated blankets. Instead, they were readying for practice while preparing for the 2023 Wasabi Fenway Bowl matchup against Southern Methodist.
"We're excited to go to a bowl game and represent Boston while doing it in Boston," said head coach Jeff Hafley. "There's a great hotel setup in an awesome area where there's a lot of stuff to do, and we're going to build the week around doing some fun things with the team that will be some team-building activities. It's a newer bowl, and I'm sure they're going to do an incredible job in a great city."
Sending BC to a bowl based in Boston felt like a foregone conclusion with the team's natural fit in its backyard, but the Eagles entered this past weekend with the same uncertainty as the rest of the ACC after the College Football Playoff selection committee shockingly omitted Florida State following the Seminoles' 16-6 win over Louisville on Saturday night.
It had touched off a firestorm created by seventh-ranked Texas' win in the Big 12 Championship, and it compounded the controversial questions about No. 1 Georgia's loss to No. 8 Alabama in the SEC Championship. Nobody knew that the committee would choose either team over an undefeated Florida State team, but the temporary slide to No. 5 after quarterback Jordan Travis' injury foreshadowed the tradewinds enveloping the conversation about which teams deserved a shot at the playoff.
Georgia couldn't rightfully earn a spot over Alabama after losing to the Crimson Tide, but the Bulldogs had a stronger regular season performance than every team short of Michigan. Ohio State likewise wasn't an option after the Michigan loss cost the Buckeyes a trip to the Big Ten conference championship, and Oregon's loss to Washington brought a second defeat to the Pacific Northwest opposite the undefeated Seminoles.
The fallout from not picking FSU was swift, but it created a butterfly effect within the ACC's bowl selection process because the conference was still contractually obligated to send its best available representative to the Orange Bowl. With FSU knocked out of the playoff, Louisville dropped back into the bowl selection process and jammed the ACC's top tier while the annual matchup between the No. 5 and No. 6 teams in the CFP poll necessitated Georgia's addition to the game in South Florida.
That top tier resulted in several different outcomes after the bowl selection narrowed. Louisville went to the Holiday Bowl to play Southern California, and No. 18 NC State stayed east to play in the Pop Tarts Bowl against No. 25 Kansas State. No. 16 Notre Dame fell into the ACC's bowl selection lineup to play in the Sun Bowl against No. 19 Oregon State, and Miami, North Carolina, Duke, BC and Syracuse were left to figure out which teams would contend for which bowl spots.
"We're looking forward to playing another game," Hafley said. "We've had a bunch of practices, and our guys have been in really good spirits. There's a lot of positive energy, and they want to get better, and that's really the best thing about a bowl game. We're on the road recruiting, but we'll fly back by Friday or Saturday and be with the guys while getting the young guys a ton of work. When we get back for good, we'll have a whole week's worth of practice before we get ready for the game."
The full breakdown was exciting to Hafley and the BC roster, but SMU's placement offered another wrinkle to a selection process that awards one automatic bid to the New Year's Six to the best-ranked team from a Group of Five conference. Saturday had started with Tulane narrowly holding that spot over Liberty, but the Green Wave's loss to SMU in the American Athletic Conference championship opened the door to the automatic spot. In the end, the Flames' undefeated record won out despite Liberty not playing a single game against a power conference team, and the two-loss Mustangs, who previously lost to Oklahoma and TCU, defaulted to the AAC's bid to the Fenway Bowl.
"The process was kind of just about waiting," said Hafley. "There are tiers where people pick, and then I kind of find out where we're going and who we're playing. I was really excited about SMU because they're a top-25 team. They have great players, they're well coached, and they're going to be an ACC opponent next year. I'm excited about it, I thought it would be a good matchup, and our players were excited to have a game against a team that a lot of people thought was going to go to a New Year's Six bowl game."
Those underlying storylines underscore the importance facing a winter morning kickoff at America's Most Beloved Ballpark. It's technically a neutral site game, but SMU has an opportunity to defeat a power conference opponent in its own backyard. It's a game at Fenway Park, but Boston College is still going to experience its home city in a way that it's never seen before while competing against another championship-caliber opponent that will eventually make its way to Boston as part of the ACC.
In many ways, it's the perfect way to end a college football season that's included all of the requisite drama required for a memorable finish.
"It's not like our players or I are downtown every single day," Hafley said, "so I'm sure there are a lot of new things that we're going to see and do. It'll be great for our families and the players, and they're going to do an awesome job with it. I'm really excited."
The 2023 Wasabi Fenway Bowl kicks off at 11 a.m. on December 28, 2023 from Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. The game will be televised on ESPN with online streaming available through the network's platform of Internet and mobile device apps.
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Wednesday, October 28
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Tuesday, October 27
