2014 Christmas Week: Boston College Festivus Airing of Grievances

I got a lot of problems with you people, and now you’re gonna hear about it! Happy Festivus, everybody.

Today is Festivus, and since we do not have a metal pole, and cannot possibly organize a feats of strength competition, what else is left to do? The airing of grievances, a time-honored tradition brought into our lives and hearts by Frank Costanza.

What in Boston College terms is worthy of public grievance?

Boston College’s Festivus Airing of Grievances

1. Hey you, City of Boston: three hours of tailgating before the game? There are high schools in Texas that get double that! As a sports fan first and foremost, the tailgate is secondary to me, but there are many Boston College fans to whom it matters a great deal. Because of where we are, the school via the city only permits three hours of pregame tailgating.

What burns me is that this and the tailgate scene in general puts us so far behind the rest of the ACC that it’s almost embarrassing to have pregame festivities at all. Even Wake Forest gets five or six hours. However, I am of the understanding that the security forces are less angry towards the masses than during the previous athletic director era.

2a. If we had a giveaway of Natty Light 30 racks at basketball games, maybe more of you kids would come. Is that what it’s gonna take? Having been to the Binghamton game on December 14, there was no detectable student section at all. This is nothing new; when the team is not playing a top-flight opponent, even since my days at Boston College, few students go and support the team.

I know, Binghamton is a lousy opponent and the team has been downright terrible for years, but it is an annual grievance we have with the “Superfans.” Not all of them are bad, but when your game draws ten students out of 9,000 undergrads on campus, that’s an issue.

2b. Maybe reform the Gold Pass system, why don’t ya? Some of these kids are getting away with lots. The Gold Pass system is a well-intentioned system created by Boston College Athletics which aims to make student involvement in games more possible. Thanks to intel from our own Kyle Egan, however, there is one slight flaw with the system: some students show at the games, scan their Gold Pass, get the points, and leave.

Boston College Eagles

Their parents pay for the pass, anyway, so all this constitutes is a minor investment of their time to reap rewards. Change it so that in order to get the points, you have to check out as well, at least at the half-way point of the game. This is a Festivus “airing of grievances,” after all, and the gaming the system on the part of some bothers me more than the not showing up at all. At least the ones staying in their dorms watching Game of Thrones are being honest.

3. Outsiders complaining about Eagles alumni not traveling: the Pinstripe Bowl is sold out. Do shut up. I am sure Penn State will constitute a majority of the fans at the Pinstripe Bowl, but it is widely known now that the game was the first bowl to sell out. That has carried the implication that Boston College has sold its share of tickets as well.

We Eagles alumni are going to the game. Please do not tell me that the school is putting out cheesy “dude” videos to try to beg us to go. We were always going to go.