The Boston College football hype has to stop now

Boston College football has, once again, been given a higher ceiling than it deserves. When will it be acknowledged that they’re just not that good?

Heading into last season, I saw that some folks in sports media were giving the Boston College Eagles football team some untraceable hype that had no business being given. In response to it, I merely asked why Boston College was being given love that it had done nothing to deserve.

It didn’t take too long for people to go straight at my throat over that one, as I proceeded to hear the typical fan-fueled takes as to why the Eagles were the real deal; I was pelted by the empty arguments about things like promising recruiting and allegedly-good coaching.

However, which side did Boston College prove right with its 2021 showing? How about you decide for yourself.

Last year, Boston College finished with a mediocre record of 6-6 (2-6 ACC), finding itself dwelling in last place in its division. The pair of league wins obtained were over Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech — both of which were losing programs last season, and neither victory was impressive enough to paint the Eagles out as true threats to anyone donning eight wins or more.

In fact, of Boston College’s six wins, none of them had winning records following the postseason stretch. But even that fact wasn’t enough to stop Athlon Sports from recently giving them a rather optimistic projection for this upcoming 2022 run.

Athlon’s takeaway made virtually no sense

At the article’s conclusion, the author hints at BC having a chance to hit the eight-win threshold this Fall, and went on to describe its journey to win the ACC Atlantic as a “stiff test.”

In other words, even after a horrendous display of formidability last year, Athlon Sports is willing to humor at least some possibility of this next Eagles squad winning its division.

And just for context, Boston College is currently sharing the Atlantic with an 11-win Wake Forest, a 10-win Clemson, and a nine-win NC State, along with Louisville (a bowl team), Florida State, and Syracuse (a pair of five-win powers who also managed to down BC in 2021). So yeah, winning the division could not feel any less likely for the Eagles.

But hey, let’s not be a victim of the moment. When looking at the brightness of a program’s future, we can’t solely look at its prior and upcoming schedules. How about recruiting? That’s important, right? It is, but not nearly as much as some would make you think.

A lot of the praise that Boston College has gotten for its recruiting are due to hauls that are merely decent by ACC standards (sixth in the league for 2022), and the conference isn’t exactly in its best state at the moment.

The Eagles have also been given some props for a pinch of early recruiting success for 2023. However, that won’t truly matter until this time next year, where Boston College’s third-place spot in the conference rankings will almost certainly be home to another name.

And while we’re on the topic, the 2023 recruiting bunch isn’t that star-studded to begin with. Sure, it’s good that BC has gotten an early start, but none of the registered talents exceed the three-star status.

Could the Boston College Eagles have a solid 2022 run? Absolutely. But, when considering the combination of past performance, upcoming league play and overrated recruiting, the odds of it happening are not particularly likely — and there isn’t a single thing that makes that statement a hot take.