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We got our chance to talk about our future ACC rivals in the "Meet Your New Neighbors" series. Now those same folks that we lightly poked fun at get to offer up their own opinions of us! Each week, I'll be posting Q&A responses from one of the 12 current ACC schools, and I'll also be submitting to some questioning on their respective sites, too. It should be fun, and if we're lucky, people might get as angry as they did in the Virginia Tech profile comment thread.
First up, we asked BC Interruption founder Brian Favat about the Boston College-Syracuse football rivalry and conference realignment, and we even (briefly) brought up our common enemy, Connecticut.
Was Syracuse your first choice for ACC expansion?
BC Interruption: Yes. Absolutely. Adding Syracuse along with BC (and Miami) was the original ACC expansion plan to begin with before some Virginia pols got in the way. It just makes too much sense. This gives Boston College a northern dancing partner, one which share a long history on both the gridiron and the hardwood. We're the only two Northeast private schools that play Division I-A college football and the program that BC has played the most this side of Worcester.
Overall thoughts on conference realignment?
BCI: Love, love, love the Syracuse add. When it happened, I wrote that BC was the biggest winner in this round of ACC expansion. Adding one of our historical rivals gives BC an intradivisional rival and in my mind validates the school's decision to leave the Big East for the ACC back in 2003.
The Pitt add is kinda like ... yeah, OK, cool. By my estimation, it's a better add than Rutgers or Connecticut from a combination of history & tradition, revenue sports, non-revs and academics. If academics wasn't a factor, which obviously it is, I would have also taken West Virginia. But short of landing Notre Dame or miraculously coaxing Vanderbilt out of the SEC, Pitt is as good as anyone else. It's all about even numbers.
Any tips for getting by in the ACC (dos, don'ts for fans)?
BCI: Do get to a Syracuse at Clemson football game every other year (basically, every chance you get). Best football atmosphere in the conference by far.
Don't compare the ACC Tournament to the Big East Tournament at the Garden. There's not much of a comparison (though the Big East Tournament did jump the shark when they started inviting the DePauls and South Floridas of the world). The dirty little secret of ACC expansion is that the Big East Tournament @ MSG is the only thing I miss about being a member of the Big East. Anyway, Duke or North Carolina always wins the thing anyway (yawn), so maybe you guys can do something about that...
Final thoughts on Syracuse overall? (both as an institution and an athletic program)
BCI: I'm told you guys also don't like UConn. Us too! But did you really fall behind them in the latest USN&WR rankings? Really?
Anyhow, overall, I really like the addition of Syracuse to the ACC. You'll probably hand us 2 losses a year in hoops and we'll return the favor in football. Though with the trajectory both our programs are on, that annual game might devolve into an ACC pillow fight a la Duke-Wake Forest.
You guys kill it in men's lacrosse. We crush it in ice hockey. I see a lot of BC in Syracuse. We're just two very similar schools and I'm glad we'll get to rekindle a football series and a lopsided basketball one ... soon. Say, 2013-14?
John Cassillo authors Atlantic Coast Convos, which chronicles ACC (Plus Syracuse & Pittsburgh) football. Check out the blog, and follow him on Twitter: @JohnCassillo