THE HARDEST PLACE TO WATCH A GAME: BOSTON

A few years ago, there was an awesome piece on ESPN Boston about BC alums who joined together every week in Chicago to watch the football team week after week. Of course, it was 2009, there was a little more motivation to actually watch the football team, but there's a point bigger than the sport here:

Boston College kind of said, 'We think we can bring a crowd,'" Collins said. "We really didn't think it was going to be a big thing. We were floored. It was wall-to-wall Boston College fans. I had no idea there were that many Eagles fans in Chicago. I was shocked." Just like that, Trinity Bar became the headquarters for Boston College fans in Chicago.

I lived in Washington DC for almost five years, and that story could be repeated there. When Porter's shut down a few years ago, we became an Alumni Association looking for a place to fill on Saturdays. Finally settled again back at the new bar that opened at the spot, I look forward to what will happen this weekend for the Wake game. I can actually count on people being there when I visit.

I've been to Gallagher's in Phoenix while visiting my folks over the holidays - the crowd there for the USC Emerald Bowl a few years ago was great. I stopped in Shanghai Kelly's after the Nevada Emerald Bowl in SF. These are great communities that have been built around a common factor.

And here in Boston, where I now live and have always kind of called home, BC game watches are next-to-non-existent. It came up in the comments on ATL's weekly Game Watch post, too: how the hell are we in such ridiculous places around town (like Ducali, where the chapter will be again this Saturday, in theory).

Talking with some people who work in the leadership of the Chapter, and we'll all admit it. The big reasons:

• Restricted to away games. While not every BC alum/supporter in town has tickets to Alumni, if you really were going to carve time out on Saturday to watch the team, it's not like it's expensive. This leads to another problem.
• Lack of a “BC Bar” in the city. Big Ten schools have bars they can call their own, and even Notre Dame has a bar in the heart of the city that is always populated. Given the fact that BC can't commit on a weekly basis, bars aren't going to give us a "Most Favored Nation" status.
• Network Not Needed. The other reason to get to game watches is to reconnect and find friendly faces in the city. Too many alums in Boston that don’t need the “networking” aspect of a game watch since they have their own friends to watch with if they feel like it, and it isn't exactly hard to run  · 
• Geography Issues. People stay close to their own neighborhood if they live in the city; Boston's public transit isn't always ideal to drive people to a central location. Big bars are in Seaport or Fenway, not all of which are quick trips depending on where people live.

There may be a home town crowd gathering at Cityside or Roggie's during the ND game, but it's just as likely to be Irish fans (as was the case with Clemson fans who didn't have tickets a few weeks back).

This is a long way of saying, "there's a reason we don't make ATL's game watch list". Not excuses, just a different community. We had a hell of a crowd for the Frozen Four.