It’s no secret Alumni Stadium is never filled with fans at the start of games.
Boston College football fans have many theories about why that is.
Boston is a professional sports city. Students only care about tailgating. BC has no school spirit.
Regardless of if any of those statements are true, there is one reason—and one reason only—why students are not inside Alumni Stadium at game time, and one reason why Alumni Stadium is rarely filled in general.
Winning—or lack thereof.
BC isn’t an SEC school. Students simply won’t show that same type of passion—or really care at all—about football unless the football team is actually winning games.
That’s why BC head coach Bill O’Brien’s comment about students not being inside Alumni Stadium early this past Tuesday was a bit interesting—and got me thinking.
“I just want people to get into the stadium early,” O’Brien said. “That’s my biggest thing. … We’ll try to play some better music, so we’re not at the opera.”
No BC student has ever left a football game because the music wasn’t good enough. No BC student has ever—or will ever—be convinced to leave their tailgate early because they heard the music before kickoff has improved.
It almost seems silly to think that anyone would even consider doing either of those things.
I think O’Brien understands that. He seemed like he was partly joking in his response, but was certainly serious about wanting students in the bleachers 30-45 minutes before the game to help improve the atmosphere.
O’Brien’s annoyance towards Alumni Stadium’s emptiness before kickoff is merely symbolic of the larger issue at hand regarding the relationship between BC students and the BC football team.
After the Eagles took down then-No.10 Florida State in Week 1 on a Monday night, the excitement on campus was like none-other, with students quite literally storming the Mods to the point where campus police had to drive through to shut everything down.
The success entered into the national landscape when BC was ranked No. 24 after demolishing Duquesne in Week 2—the first time the Eagles had been ranked since the 2018 season.
Suddenly, the rest of the country was starting to take notice of what was happening in Chestnut Hill, largely because of their new, big name head coach.
Even after BC narrowly lost to then-No.6 Missouri, the hype still remained next week when the Eagles faced Michigan State in the Red Bandanna game on Sept. 21. In front of a sold-out crowd of 44,500 in the pouring rain, O’Brien led his program to a 23–19 win, Eagles’ fans stormed the field, and BC improved to 3–1.
ACC Huddle, ACC Network’s signature live show, even made its way to BC’s campus for the Red Bandanna game. Some BC fans were legitimately upset when ESPN’s College Gameday chose South Carolina versus LSU instead of BC versus Missouri the week prior.
But without all this excitement, Alumni Stadium will never be rocking right at kickoff. And 30-45 minutes before kickoff is just flat-out unrealistic.
Why?
People pay a lot of money for a tailgate. It costs $2,500-plus to have a tailgate on the top of the Comm. Ave garage roof. For a spot outside of Robsham Theater, it costs upwards of $10,000.
No alumnus is going to leave those spots early because O’Brien hand picked the playlist.
And no student is going to either. Tailgates are quite literally the highlight of many BC students’ social life during the fall semester. Almost everyone wants to take full advantage of the allotted tailgating time—especially when that time is only four hours before kickoff and one hour after the game ends.
But it doesn’t have to be that way all the time. We saw at the Michigan State game how students packed the student section before kickoff. No, Alumni Stadium certainly wasn’t filled up seat for seat, but it was the most filled it has been all season with an environment that every student should want to experience.
When BC is winning, nothing else really matters. Rain or shine, noon or night game, BC students will show up to Alumni Stadium if they believe they’re team will put up a good fight and have a legitimate shot at winning—which had been the case throughout the first five games of the season.
Now, heading into Friday night against Louisville, consider the fact that BC had lost two straight games by a combined 31 points.
Any momentum that had been built up during the first five weeks of the season had come crashing down.
The honeymoon for O’Brien? Over.
The universal praise for quarterback Thomas Castellanos? Hard to find after two fumbles against Virginia Tech.
Respect for a defense that had allowed only 79 points through the first five weeks? No one seems to be scared of it anymore after allowing 95 points during this three-game losing streak.
So even with a primetime, Friday night game against Louisville in crisp 50-degree weather, the atmosphere was nowhere near the levels it was five weeks ago versus Michigan State. Forcing tailgates to end at 7 p.m. for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff wasn’t going to force anyone into Alumni Stadium faster than usual.
While the student sections were filled midway through the first quarter, the bleachers once again emptied out come the fourth quarter while the Eagles were in the midst of blowing a 20–0 lead.
To many students and alumni, such patterns represent what they’ve largely experienced for however long they have been a BC fan. They’ve seen some highs, but are numb to the blown leads and losses.
Listen, there are still plenty of BC fans who stay the entire game no matter what. Credit to those people. I totally get it, as I am one of those people.
But for many people—the casual BC fan—they would rather watch the game at Circle, Cityside, or just not watch at all unless they believe there is a reason to.
And that reason would be winning—which is something that has not been happening enough for many.
Personally, I think O’Brien has been doing a fine job. I never had crazy expectations for this team like many did—I predicted the Eagles would finish 6–6. It’s his first season in Chestnut Hill. The time to overreact is certainly not now. I’m confident in O’Brien and BC’s future, and only time will tell over the next few years.
But most students don’t think like that. They only see wins and losses. If there’s a lot of winning, BC experiences atmospheres like it did in Week Five against Michigan State.
But if there’s even some losing—like there has been recently—Alumni Stadium will be half empty, like it was at the end of the game on Saturday night.
Is that fair for the players that they need to always exceed expectations to draw those big crowds for an entire game? Probably not. But that’s that way it is at BC and that’s the way it will always be unless something drastic happens.
And I promise, the new music won’t be changing anything anytime soon.
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