BC
- Thread starter Dogdeacon
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Not certain, but you probably could link St John's suckitude to original BE expansion. They were always fighting an uphill battle due to campus etc.., but once they weren't one of just nine major north east BBall TV-market destinations their disadvantage was magnified. Add internal AD/coaching miscalcs and it is a recipe for the disaster they've got. Georgetown headed down same route, but they've got campus/city advantages that make it easier to resurrect.
But the whole thing is splitting hairs. We all know there are no more Northeast basketball rivalries and college basketball is slowly morping into college football where the rest of the country is into college sports/teams and everything north of DC doesn't matter. DC & Boston are lucky that their NBA teams are good, NYC & Philly not so much.
Looking at the stands, it must be a game day at BC.
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As someone who lives in the Boston area I can tell you that nobody cares about BC athletics up here unless they went to BC. And that's not a ton of people. It's not a public school and it's in a big city with successful pro franchises in all the major sports (which is what almost every sport fan here follows). BC isn't like say Wake Forest in Winston-Salem or Syracuse U. in Syracuse where there's nothing else and the locals follow those teams. Nobody cares about BC in Boston. ACC Sports may be on TV up here. But nobody is watching them.
I think there is a bigger following for UConn sports up here. Although that may just be my bias because I notice it more because I'm a UConn fan.[/QUOTE]
We do have a slice of Boston - but it has rarely been a college sports fan town.
What we do have far more than when all this CR started in 2002-2003 is a BRAND and a solid statement of Athletic Excellence. That can be our eyeballs in our home state; but even more compelling is the capacity to emerge into Manhattan, Westchester, LI ... after we encroached somewhat into Fairfield. That is the MBB ... but really as we watch the HBO on the Auriemma Program, we have a broader story. As Joe Nocera said, no University got screwed as much as UConn. And that is always bringing this back to what the heck the other choices - Syracuse, Rutgers and BC - have done to produce anything looking stronger over the next 10 years. Simple a story of ugly.
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St. John's is experiencing a renaissance while we weren't looking. Since 2002, they have a campus. They are buying the neighborhood (expensive as it is). And they are improving academically. However ... the P5 stuff and 2 decades of stall ... they are facing an uphill climb for recognition.
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BC is in a tough spot. It is a smallish private school which is not really connected to the local community anymore. In an odd way the Flutie years were the beginning of the end. As they became a more "national" university the local alumni/subway alumni started shrinking. Even in the 80s every town and every parish in greater Boston had a bunch of BC alumni. The priests all went to the seminary across the road from BC so they had a connection too. That isn't true any more. A BC grad in Charlotte or Houston or Chicago isn't going to many games or buying many season tix. Add in the incredible success of especially the. Sox and Pats and it is no wonder nobody cares. No alumni base. No community base. Bad teams = no fan base.