BC Needs New 15 Opponent

According to Adam Smith of the Times-News in North Carolina, Boston College is looking for a new opponent for the 2015 season.

#Elon has moved Boston College off its 2015 football schedule and added a game at #Wake Forest to open that season.— Adam Smith (@adam_smithTN) July 31, 2014

While BC has not made any formal announcement of the news, Smith is regarded as a respected source for Elon football news. Regardless of where the news is coming from, the Eagles are now left with trying to find a new FCS team to play in 2015.

Although we are heading into crunch time for next season's scheduling it looks like there are still a few local FCS teams out of the CAA that BC could schedule. The two geographically closest teams are Maine and Rhode Island, although they might not be the best fit. The Eagles host Maine this season, so it probably wouldn't make sense to host the same FCS opponent in back-to-back seasons. The game won't have the same excitement for Maine fans, and BC fans certainly won't be happy with the same FCS team coming to Alumni in back-to-back seasons. URI is an option, although BC hosted them somewhat recently in 2008.

The other east coast teams from the CAA that have open slots against FBS opponents (according to FBSchedules.com) are Delaware, James Madison, and Towson.

While Towson has had the most recent on-field success as the FCS runner-ups last season, Delaware might be the most intriguing opponent from a ticket sale standpoint. The Blue Hens have a very loyal fan base that averages around 20,000 fans for home games. From 2011-2013 Delaware only scheduled Navy as an FBC opponent, and this year they scheduled Pitt. A case could be made that the fan base would be up for a road trip to a new exciting destination like Boston. Also, former BC coach Dave Brock is now the coach at Delaware, which makes for a little bit of an interesting side story.

The options are out there for the Eagles. Let's see which direction Brad Bates takes the schedule in.