View From Bennett Avenue

Boston College Athletic Director Gene DeFilippo has now retracted some of his comments made about ACC expansion but the gist of his remarks remain clear. BC does not want Connecticut in the conference. What role ESPN has ever played in this affair remain unclear and the main reason for BC's attitude against UConn are also a bit murky.
Is ESPN trying to play the role of kingmaker? It appears that way. What is clear is that the inability of the BE to sign on to the huge television offer from ESPN cost them a great deal with the future of the conference in doubt. It is unfathomable to think that ESPN, once spurned, played any role in the weakening of a conference that in many ways made the network what it is today. But why would DeFilippo make that up?
As for the desire by Boston College to challenge Connecticut's potential move to the ACC, I find that either reason offered by DeFilippo to be shortsighted. DeFilippo mentioned both that BC wanted to have ownership of New England in terms of ACC membership and that he was still angry at Connecticut for the lawsuit against BC when the Eagles left the BE. For one thing, no one cares that Boston College is the sole ACC team in New England and the lawsuit is getting a bit old now. Yes it got personal, but if UConn's joining the ACC helps your sports programs then you must get past it.
To be honest, every member of the ACC but BC should not care about UConn joining and BC should want them in. If football is indeed driving expansion, what does the Husky football program bring to the conference? And even if you would be fired up about adding their men's basketball team, how will it look in the very near future when they have a new coach? Meanwhile Boston College athletics--apart from hockey which, of course, is not in the ACC--have become virtually invisible. They desperately need a return to their rivalry with UConn, especially in the pro-oriented city of Boston. Being the sole ACC program from New England has done absolutely nothing for Boston College.