The Boston College Eagles are coming off a 3-9 (2-6 Atlantic Coast Conference) season and lost all-everything WR Zay Flowers to a first-round draft pick by the Baltimore Ravens. Even with Flowers, BC’s two league wins were only by one point each and four of their league losses were by 17 points or more.
What can fans expect after last year’s seventh-place finish?
BetMassachusetts.com – your source for Massachusetts sports betting promos – placed hypothetical odds on the most likely records for BC this year.
Hypothetical Odds on BC’s Final Record
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Work Cut Out for Hafley, BC
Coach Jeff Hafley returns for his fourth season and there will be a lot of new faces. Eighteen freshman signees and 10 transfers will be joining the team; in addition to graduations, 14 players have transferred out.
Earlier this week, we looked at BC’s September schedule.
The Eagles will need help defending passes as safety Jaiden Woodbey signed with the Los Angeles Rams, safety Jason Maitre transferred to Texas A&M and CB John DeBerry transferred to Wisconsin. BC needs Arkansas transfer Khari Johnson ready to step in at DB as transfers from LIU and Harvard might need time to adjust.
Three-year starting quarterback Phil Jurkovec is also gone – he’ll be at Pitt this season. The battle to start behind center should be between redshirt sophomore Emmett Morehead and UCF transfer Thomas Castellanos. Morehead started after Jurkovec got injured in 2022 and led BC to a 21-20 road win over NC State, its first Top-25 win since 2018.
If the 2023 BC O-line improves over the 2022 version – granted, a low bar – the Eagles should easily top last year’s three wins. They should, in fact, start out 2-0 with home wins over Northern Illinois and Holy Cross. Florida State at home the following week will be perhaps the toughest test – but the Seminoles are the only team on the schedule ranked in the pre-season Top 25. There’s no Clemson or Notre Dame on this year’s schedule. At Louisville the following week followed by Virginia at home are toss-ups, but Louisville certainly will be looking to avenge last year’s 34-33 loss at BC.
At Army to start October should be a win, Georgia Tech in Atlanta could be a win and UConn at home should be a win, although UConn beat the Eagles in Storrs last year, 13-3.
The season plays out at Syracuse (which beat BC in Chestnut Hill last season 32-23), home against Virginia Tech (a 27-10 winner last season at their place), at Pitt (to possibly face Jurkovec) and home against Miami. Splitting those final four should get BC into a bowl game.
A lot will have to go right for Boston College to get to six wins, but a lot will also have to go right for the teams they’re playing to beat them. ACC opponents Virginia Tech, Virginia and Miami are all coming off sub-par years.
Analysis: If BC wins the games it should and splits the 50/50 games, six or seven wins is likely. Eight wins or better will mean that everything has gone right. Everything rarely goes right, so I’ll predict 6-6 or 7-5.
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