Last year, Boston College renewed one of the most historic matchups in college football when it squared off against Holy Cross for the first time in 32 years. On Wednesday, Director of Athletics Martin Jarmond announced that BC will be continuing that storied “rivalry,” in addition to a few other regional matchups that go back a number of decades.
The Eagles will play at Army in 2023, and then will host the Black Knights in 2028. After completing its two-game series with Holy Cross on Sept. 5, 2020—when the Crusaders visit Chestnut Hill for the second time in three years—BC will welcome back Holy Cross in 2023. Last, but not least, the Eagles will go on the road to face Connecticut in 2022 before hosting the Huskies in the back half of a home-and-home in 2023.
BC and Army haven’t butted heads since 2013, when Steve Addazio’s Eagles rolled to a 48-27 victory at home, but the teams’ history dates back to 1917. Army won its first nine meetings against BC, most notably a 44-8 beatdown of the Eagles in 1959. Since then, however, the Eagles have dominated, winning 25 of the last 29 matchups. BC currently leads the all-time series, 25-13. From 1975 to 1995, the schools—both independents at the time—played against one another in 21 straight seasons, yet they’ve only had six meetings in the past two decades.
Eagles fans saw Holy Cross in action just last season in what was a reunion of sorts. After BC and the Crusaders played each other practically every year from 1896 to 1986, Holy Cross decided to join the FCS and terminated the series. But, thanks to the restoration of the Crusaders’ football scholarships, the two sides agreed to renew the series in January of 2014. The September 2018 matchup was the first of two games between the New England foes since the ’80s. It wasn’t pretty—BC ran Holy Cross out of Alumni with a 62-14 blowout—yet tons of Crusaders came to watch. In fact, 40,311 people attended the game, 4,189 short of a sellout. Winners of 18 of the teams’ last 21 meetings, the Eagles lead the all-time series, 49-31-3.
UConn announced that it will be departing from the American Athletic Conference for the Big East in 2020—a basketball move that leaves its football team as an independent—but that doesn’t mean that the Eagles won’t have the opportunity to meet the Huskies again. The programs have taken the same field 14 times, spanning more than 100 years. They first played each other in 1909, with BC winning, 17-0. All in all, the Eagles own a 12-0-2 record against UConn. BC last met the Huskies at Fenway Park in 2017, where the Eagles clinched bowl eligibility with a resounding 39-16 win.
Year in and year out, BC has one of the most difficult conference schedules in the nation. After all, it’s in the same division as Clemson and Florida State, among other established programs. But now, in the years to come, the Eagles will also have one of the more historic—albeit weaker—non-conference slates in the sport of college football.
Featured Image by Julia Hopkins / Heights Senior Staff
