Hey guys, long time reader, first time poster. We may not need another BC thread, but I wanted to introduce myself. I just want to say this series is great for New England and even better for us. I live on the border of MA and CT so I'm surrounded by a nice mixture of UConn/BC/UMass fans, which will hopefully create a nice atmosphere during the football season. I write this post pleased that UMass is included, but obviously more so to finally play BC. I'll be writing about BC, but just know UMass is involved, because like a little brother, they may not be as cool or fun to hang out with, but they're "family" in this sense. We finally have the structure in place for a true regional rival that we can embrace and look forward to. For some of us in CT, UMass and BC will be the closest road games we can possibly go to. Taking a trip to BC would require very little planning and be a short day trip against a program with (and it hurts me to say) some sparse yet historic moments in CFB giving them a solid football pedigree. In recent years, Matt Ryan, Luke Kuechly and B.J. Raji have been 2 of the better players at their positions and Andre Williams won the Doak Walker in 2013. They have a national title and a Heisman winner and if you check wiki, their rivals are Miami, Syracuse and Notre Dame among others, but we're not on it. Like it or not, BC is good company to have. It'll be great for recruiting CT players and their families playing a P5 team as a rival the next state over and we can use it to get some of the better MA or New England players. Too bad we'll go 4 years without playing BC (the athletes we recruit who begin 2018 won't get to play BC unless they redshirt). Would've been nice to at least switch every other 2 years between the 2 schools.
Rivalry Game Names: We could call it "The New England Chowder Cup/Bowl", "The Chowder Cup/Bowl", "The Oyster", "The Lobster Claw", or "The Founder's Cup". For "The Oyster", the trophy could be a big (obviously fake) pearl that the winner could paint their teams colors, and keep on a nice stand when its not being painted or passed around after the game, kinda like the UNC vs Duke football trophy that they paint every year. Or maybe a football that's colored like an oyster. Seafood theme could be a strong regional identifier that the rest of the country can't call their own (maybe the oysters, but still). I think it would be intriguing for the rest of the country to watch "The Chowder Bowl". What we don't have in football tradition, we definitely have in colonial tradition. We can't make up for the 110 games Michigan has played Ohio State but we definitely have them on national history and years settled lol. Could be our FBS version of "The Game" between Yale-Harvard, which hosted college gameday last year and lived up to the hype.
We have obvious advantages to playing BC because of their name, location, history, and the fact that they're a P5 opponent, but I think they'll gladly reciprocate the rivalry because of our name, location, maybe a few basketball games throw in there, and perhaps the fact that we (gulp) tried to sue them might have left a bad taste in their mouth and may fuel their motivation too. Regardless of how they're made, we saw what rivalries can do for our student athletes and coaches when they played UCF. The game made national headlines for many reasons, but most importantly got people around the country aware of if not interested in UConn football. We need to capitalize on this opportunity and make it a long-standing tradition.
Just a somewhat quick thought that I felt was appropriate for my first post. Go Huskies!
Rivalry Game Names: We could call it "The New England Chowder Cup/Bowl", "The Chowder Cup/Bowl", "The Oyster", "The Lobster Claw", or "The Founder's Cup". For "The Oyster", the trophy could be a big (obviously fake) pearl that the winner could paint their teams colors, and keep on a nice stand when its not being painted or passed around after the game, kinda like the UNC vs Duke football trophy that they paint every year. Or maybe a football that's colored like an oyster. Seafood theme could be a strong regional identifier that the rest of the country can't call their own (maybe the oysters, but still). I think it would be intriguing for the rest of the country to watch "The Chowder Bowl". What we don't have in football tradition, we definitely have in colonial tradition. We can't make up for the 110 games Michigan has played Ohio State but we definitely have them on national history and years settled lol. Could be our FBS version of "The Game" between Yale-Harvard, which hosted college gameday last year and lived up to the hype.
We have obvious advantages to playing BC because of their name, location, history, and the fact that they're a P5 opponent, but I think they'll gladly reciprocate the rivalry because of our name, location, maybe a few basketball games throw in there, and perhaps the fact that we (gulp) tried to sue them might have left a bad taste in their mouth and may fuel their motivation too. Regardless of how they're made, we saw what rivalries can do for our student athletes and coaches when they played UCF. The game made national headlines for many reasons, but most importantly got people around the country aware of if not interested in UConn football. We need to capitalize on this opportunity and make it a long-standing tradition.
Just a somewhat quick thought that I felt was appropriate for my first post. Go Huskies!
