Projecting where you may find each of Boston College football's 12 2014 games on your TV.
While the ACC released its composite 2014 football schedule today, network and game times for the first three games of the season won't be released until later this year. We'll likely have to wait much longer -- possibly only a week before games on the rest of the schedule -- to learn broadcast details for the rest of the schedule.
Still, with the caveat that much of this will depend on how the team performs as the season goes on, we can start to make some educated guesses as to where you'll be able to find the Eagles on television next season.
Thankfully, ESPN/ABC owns the broadcast rights for all of the Eagles' games in 2014, so fans won't have to deal with the headache of having road games televised on networks you don't get as part of your cable package. Cough Pac-12 Network cough. Unfortunately, that also means that none of the Eagles 2014 games will be televised on Aggievision.
Let's make some guesses about where you'll be able to watch the Eagles on TV in 2014:
Saturday, August 30
Boston College at UMass, Clemson at Georgia, Elon at Duke, Oklahoma State vs. Florida State (Dallas), Wofford at Georgia Tech, Liberty at North Carolina, Georgia Southern at NC State, Delaware at Pitt, Villanova at Syracuse, UCLA at Virginia, William & Mary at Virginia Tech
Prediction: ESPN3.com
This is the problem with the Good for New England (TM) road game. While it's great for in-state fans to have a non-conference road game a short drive away, BC-UMass won't generate much if any TV interest outside of the Bay State. As such, this game will likely only be available on ESPN3. Last year's BC-Villanova FCS opener was picked up by ESPNews, though I doubt BC-UMass will find its way onto one of ESPN's networks. Best case scenario is the game is on ESPN3 nationally and gets pick up by NESN or Ch. 38 locally.
Friday, September 5
Pitt at Boston College, ESPN/ESPN2
Prediction: ESPN2
The one real benefit of the Friday night home game is that BC will be the only football game on in that time slot. The Friday night time slot is becoming more valuable as the NFL has begun going head-to-head with the college game on Thursday night. This time slot also gets one of BC's less popular home games on national TV when it normally wouldn't get on ESPN/ESPN2 if played on Saturday. Last season's week 2 BC-Wake Forest game drew reasonably well on ESPN2 (0.8 rating, 1.09M viewers). My guess is this year's BC-Pitt game lands in that same network and time slot (8:00 PM, ESPN2).
Saturday, September 13
Southern California at Boston College, Kansas at Duke, Georgia Southern at Georgia Tech, Arkansas State at Miami, NC State at South Florida, Pitt at Florida International, Syracuse at Central Michigan, Louisville at Virginia, East Carolina at Virginia Tech, Wake Forest at Utah State
Prediction: ABC/ESPN2
Not exactly a stellar lineup of games in the ACC in week 3. That will certainly play to BC and USC's advantage. The Eagles will be coming off a Friday night home game against Pitt on national TV, while USC draws Fresno State and at Stanford right out of the gate. The Trojans could very well be 0-2 heading into their week 3 matchup on the Heights. Luckily though, ESPN typically sets the first three week's TV schedule before the season begins. I'm also not seeing a lot of marquee games that would bump BC-USC from, say, a 3:30 kickoff with coverage split over ABC/ESPN2.
Saturday, September 20
Maine at Boston College, Tulane at Duke, Clemson at Florida State, Louisville at Florida International, Miami at Nebraska, North Carolina at East Carolina, Presbyterian at NC State, Iowa at Pitt, Maryland at Syracuse, Virginia at BYU, Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech, Army at Wake Forest
Prediction: ESPN3.com
Be thankful that this game is televised at all. It wouldn't have been just a few short years ago.
Saturday, September 27
Colorado State at Boston College, North Carolina at Clemson, Wake Forest at Louisville, Duke at Miami, Florida State at NC State, Akron at Pitt, Notre Dame at Syracuse, Kent State at Virginia, Western Michigan at Virginia Tech
Prediction: ESPN3.com
The Eagles are likely looking at another internet EXCLUSIVE in week 4. There's enough meat on some of these other games -- UNC-Clemson, Duke-Miami, FSU-N.C. State, Notre Dame-Syracuse -- that I think it unlikely that the Colorado State game would sneak onto the ACC's Regional Sports Networks or ESPNU / ESPNews.
Saturday, October 11
Louisville at Clemson, Duke at Georgia Tech, Cincinnati at Miami, North Carolina at Notre Dame, Boston College at NC State, Florida State at Syracuse
Prediction: ACC RSN
Boston College-N.C. State (the Gator Bowl?) is arguably the least appealing of this weekend's games, though with only a few of them, my guess is the State game lands on the ACC's Regional Sports Networks.
Saturday, October 18
Clemson at Boston College, Virginia at Duke, Notre Dame at Florida State, NC State at Louisville, Georgia Tech at North Carolina, Syracuse at Wake Forest
Prediction: ABC/ESPN2
Clearly, the Notre Dame-Florida State game will carry the weekend for the ACC. Seminoles vs. Irish is bound to be in prime time, which could open up a slot for an afternoon kickoff on ABC/ESPN2.
Saturday, October 25
Syracuse at Clemson, Georgia Tech at Pitt, North Carolina at Virginia, Boston College at Wake Forest
Prediction: ACC RSN
Another very light week in the ACC. If this weekend was a bit more packed, #therivalry would seem destined for the ESPN3 EXCLUSIVE label. But with only four games on that Saturday, BC-Wake will wind up getting televised.
Saturday, November 1
Virginia at Georgia Tech, North Carolina at Miami, Duke at Pitt, NC State at Syracuse, Boston College at Virginia Tech
Prediction: ESPN2
Depending on how the early Coastal Division race shakes out, the WWL could throw some love to one of those three intra-division games with a choice TV slot. However, even when it's not played on a Thursday, BC-Virginia Tech has done well for itself as far as networks go. I could see this being an early start game on ESPN2 or ESPNU.
Saturday, November 8
Louisville at Boston College, Virginia at Florida State, Georgia Tech at NC State, Duke at Syracuse
Prediction: ACC RSN
Very light week in the ACC. Really not a great matchup out there this week. Florida State will likely get the national TV slot, leaving Louisville-BC, Georgia Tech-N.C. State and the Greg Paulus Bowl, Duke-Syracuse, to fend for ACC RSN scraps.
Saturday, November 22
Georgia State at Clemson, Boston College at Florida State, Louisville at Notre Dame, Syracuse at Pitt, Miami at Virginia, Virginia Tech at Wake Forest
Prediction: ESPN
While this will test the limits of just how many consecutive weeks Florida State gets on national TV -- the Noles have games against in-state rivals Miami and Florida sandwiching the BC game -- my guess is BC-FSU ends up on ESPN. And honestly, there isn't many other desirable games on this weekend. The Louisville-Notre Dame game will be picked up by NBC; not the WWL.
Saturday, November 29
Syracuse at Boston College, South Carolina at Clemson, Wake Forest at Duke, Florida at Florida State, Georgia Tech at Georgia, Kentucky at Louisville, Pitt at Miami, NC State at North Carolina
Prediction: ACC RSN
While I'm all about making the Boston College-Syracuse rivalry game as rivalrous as possible, the one downside to having the #OrangeEagle at season's end is that the game gets lost in the shuffle among the ACC's other strong rivalry games. For the Eagles and Orange, that likely means another game on the ACC's Regional Sports Network (so, NESN and YES/MSG).