It took a furious fourth quarter comeback to survive a scare from Western Kentucky on Saturday, but Boston College continues to exceed expectations in Bill O’Brien’s first season. The Eagles moved to 4-1 with their 21-20 win over the Hilltoppers, putting them just half a game behind their preseason over/under win total of 4.5 at the beginning of October.
Now the team turns its attention to Virginia this weekend as it looks to get closer to bowl eligibility in consecutive seasons for just the third time since the end of BC’s streak of 12 straight bowl appearances between 1999 and 2010. With the Eagles soaring, BetMassachusetts.com can't help but think with our Massachusetts sports betting mindset. We developed exclusive odds on which bowl game they will play in based on the team’s latest performance.
These are the likeliest locations to host Boston College for what would be the team’s 29th bowl appearance:
Bowl | Location | Odds | Percentage Chance |
Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl | El Paso, TX | +150 | 40.0% |
Pinstripe Bowl | New York, New York | +400 | 20.0% |
Military Bowl | Annapolis Maryland | +500 | 16.7% |
Pop-Tarts Bowl | Orlando, FL | +650 | 13.3% |
The Field/No Bowl |
| +900 | 10.0% |
Odds provided by BetMassachusetts and not available on MA betting apps.
Boston College currently owns matching +2500 odds to win the ACC Championship and make the College Football Playoff per Massachusetts FanDuel Sportsbook. Both numbers rank fifth in the conference behind Miami, Clemson, Louisville and SMU.
The Eagles have the good fortune of avoiding Miami and Clemson on the schedule. However, their seven remaining ACC opponents sport a combined record of 22-9 so far this season, with only Virginia Tech below .500. Louisville is the lone ranked team left on Boston College’s slate. The Eagles benefit from the fact that four of their five final games come at home, but the team lacks the games against the league’s bottom feeders to make it a truly soft schedule.
Boston College is likely staring at a trip to one of the ACC’s mid-level bowl tie-ins. As of this week, BetMassachusetts.com believes the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl is now the favorite among those games to host the Eagles, rising from +650 last week to +150 now.
Boston College has never appeared in the Sun Bowl, which has been tied to the ACC since 2010, over the game’s 90-year history, but the bowl traditionally selects a team that finishes between fourth and eighth in the conference, something the Eagles have not done since 2020 when they opted out of participating in a bowl due to COVID despite being eligible after going 6-5. Unlike some conferences, the ACC does not hard slot certain positions in the standings to specific bowls, instead using a tiering system to allow the games to pick from one of several teams in the league.
Should geography come into play for the selection, the Pinstripe Bowl would be another natural choice in the same tier for Boston College. The Eagles competed in the 2014 and 2017 editions of the game and the bowl typically tries to involve a team from the Northeast to boost attendance.
Other games with tier-one ACC tie ins include the Pop Tarts Bowl, Gator Bowl, Holiday Bowl, Duke’s Mayo Bowl, Military Bowl, and Fenway Bowl. Boston College played in the Fenway Bowl last season, defeating now conference foe SMU 23-14 for the school’s first bowl win since 2016.
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USA Today photo by Melina Myers.
Author
Josh Markowitz is a freelance writer for BetMassachusetts.com. He is a lifelong sports fan with an emphasis on basketball, football, baseball, and the scouting/evaluation process. A graduate of Elon University's School of Communications, Josh also has experience in television production.
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