Buckle Up: Boston College to bring a Big Ten style of football


The addition of Boston College to the ACC may provide Wake Forest with the chance to form the kind of mutual rivalry, particularly in football, that it hasn't had in the conference.
Athletics Director Ron Wellman and football coach Jim Grobe believe that Wake Forest and Boston College share many qualities in athletics and academics that will allow the schools to become the best of rivals.
Wellman was part of the ACC's committee that scouted prospective new members in the spring of 2003, and he recognized immediately that Boston College was more like Wake Forest than any ACC school.
"Typically, you don't think that a school that far away can become a natural rival for you," Wellman said. "But Boston College is so similar to Wake Forest in everything that they do, whether it be academically or athletically. And our fans love to go to Boston. It's a great trip.
"I envision this becoming a real strong rivalry. The first two football games that we've had with them have been fabulous contests that were hotly contested. I really do believe that it is going to emerge as one of the great rivalries that we have."
Grobe's teams won both games, 32-28 in Boston in 2003 and 17-14 in Groves Stadium last season. The teams will be in the ACC's Atlantic Division in football and are scheduled to meet for the next 11 seasons.
In basketball, the schools will be rotating partners in 2005-06, with each having a home game. They will be simple rotating partners in the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons and will meet only once a season.
Grobe knows already how good Boston College's football team is and feels that that will be helpful for his team. Other ACC teams, with the exception of North Carolina, will be playing Boston College for the first time. His advice to all - buckle up, because Boston College will help make the ACC the best football conference in America.
"The neat thing about Boston College is that they bring a different style of football to the league," Grobe said. "For all intents and purposes, we brought a Big Ten team into the ACC. You think of Miami and you think of speed. Virginia Tech is kind of a combination of both: they've got a big, physical team, but they also have the good speed.
"Boston College is really just a big, strong, physical football team. They're more of a classic-type football team that you might see from Ohio State and Michigan, the Big Ten-type teams. I think we've not only brought in some different perspective regionally but certainly they're three great football teams that all have great bowl traditions. They'll make an already good football league much better."
Gary Williams, the basketball coach at Maryland, probably knows more about Boston College than anyone else in the ACC. He coached there for four seasons, starting in 1982-83 and amassed a 76-45 record before leaving for Ohio State.
"It's a good school; it's a very good academic school," Williams said. "Any time you bring a school like that in, it reflects favorably on the conference. Up there, it's a three-sport school with hockey, but they've shown how good they are in basketball and football. So I think it's a good addition to the league.
"And it gives you another great media market in Boston. That's one of the larger media markets and puts us from Boston to Miami. When you look around the country in terms of the major media markets in a conference, I think we're ahead of the game right now."
Last basketball season, Miami and Virginia Tech surprised fans and analysts with teams that were stronger than expected. Boston College will be expected to contend for the ACC basketball title from the start. The Eagles, under Coach Al Skinner, won their first 20 games last season and will have many of their key players back.
Coach Seth Greenberg of Virginia Tech said that ACC basketball will be stronger because of Boston College, although purists will miss the round-robin schedule in which each ACC team played every other twice.
"They have a no-nonsense attitude of how to play," Greenberg said. "They don't care who you are or what name's on the front of your jersey. They're going to compete. They reflect Coach Skinner. They're a winning team.
"He has a system, and they're committed to their system. They've got a toughness about them that is really, really special."
John Bunting, the football coach at North Carolina, is among many ACC coaches eager for Boston College's arrival but hopeful that expansion is over. He believes that the ACC has reached the objectives it set and that the addition of Boston College, Virginia Tech and Miami makes the ACC the best football conference in the country.
"I've maintained since last year that it's the No. 1 conference in the country," Bunting said. "I still feel the same way. The teams that came in are great college football teams. Our other teams are already tough to play. Of the 12 teams, probably six or seven are going to be in the top 25.
"Boston College is a great football program, and going to Boston is a great trip. I'm looking forward to taking our team up there. That's one of the reasons I like scheduling teams like Colorado. I like taking trips like that for our team."
Wellman backed expansion because of the benefits he saw for the ACC's future. Haggling among school presidents almost torpedoed expansion, but Wellman believes that the ACC is stronger and has a secure future.
"I don't know what benefit there would be to further expansion at this point in time," Wellman said. "We accomplished what we wanted to accomplish.
"The conference needs to mature now with this number of schools and get accustomed to this and develop rivalries and relationships as much as possible.
"I would be shocked if there were any further expansion. You never say never, of course, but I would be shocked if, in the foreseeable future, there were additional expansions."

Bill Cole
JOURNAL REPORTER