Boston College

Prior to around 1950 or so, there were a lot of Catholic colleges with good football programs. Vince Lombardi played at Fordham. Georgetown played in the 1941 Orange Bowl. Holy Cross played in the 1946 Orange Bowl. But as the cost of playing big-time football increased, Catholic schools tended to drop big-time football. For decades now, only two such schools have remained in Division I-A: Notre Dame (of course) and Boston College.

B.C. has had its moments, the most famous of which was on November 23, 1984, when Doug Flutie threw a spectacular touchdown pass on the last play of the game to beat Miami of Florida on the day after Thanksgiving by a score of 47-45. I watched that game, and I can honestly say it was one of the greatest sports moments I ever saw.

For most of its history, B.C. was an independent team playing mostly schools in the East. In 1991, B.C. began playing in the Big East conference, where it stayed until 2004. Since then, it has been a member of the ACC, which is why it is playing Clemson this weekend. This has been an awkward marriage -- ACC fans have no interest in playing B.C., and folks up in Boston aren't particularly interested in watching UVA or Wake Forest when they come to town. B.C. is no doubt relieved that two other Yankee schools -- Syracuse and Pittsburgh -- will soon be joining them in the ACC.

B.C. has never won the UCFC, and has actually only appeared in five UCFC games. Two of those were in the 1920s, while the other three were B.C.'s games in 2000, 2001, and 2002 with Miami of Florida. Those three games all resulted in blowouts for the Canes.