BC Football — The Board Case

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The Championship Window — A Fiduciary Case for Boston College Football

The Championship Window A fiduciary case for Boston College football For the Board of Trustees · October 2026 Prepared for the Boston College Board of Trustees · From the Trustee Working Group on Athletics
01 A commitment already made — now to be deployed well
THE HINGE OF THIS CASE · DECEMBER 2, 2025 The institution has already answered whether. The question now is how well. Cap $50M 2026 GM REVENUE-SHARE RAISED TO MATCH-CHALLENGE HEAD COACH RETAINED FOR A FOOTBALL GENERAL THE MAXIMUM PERMISSIBLE LEVEL CAMPAIGN, MET 1-TO-1 OVER 5–7 YEARS A THIRD SEASON…
“The institution has committed to fund football at the cap. The strategy and the sizing that make that commitment actually win — and the decision on the capital and the milestones that sit on top of it — are what is now in front of this Board.” T H E P O S T U R E O F T H I S C A S E — A D E B AT E…
WHY THIS IS A BOARD DECISION A multi-year commitment that touches identity and carries real downside Why football, and why now • Football carries the university's national visibility and is the What the Board is asked to weigh • asset through which the ACC increasingly distributes its money. • •…
02 The honest diagnosis, stated without flattery
ON THE FIELD A bottom-tier ACC program — and the gap to the teams that win is measurable, not motivational 2–10 7–6 9–16 2007 2025 OVERALL (1–7 ACC) — 2024 (4–4 ACC) — THE TWO-SEASON HEAD- BC'S LAST DIVISION TITLE WORST SEASON SINCE 2012, TIED FOR LAST IN THE CONFERENCE FLOOR AND CEILING SIT CLOSE;…
F I N A N C I A L L Y, A G A I N S T T H E P R O G R A M S T H AT W I N The structural gap: roughly $25M per school, per year — and widening Per-school conference distribution, FY2024–25 holdover members. ACC figure is the average; min $42.8M, Clemson high $55.1M. Source: conference tax filings via…
I N T H E S TA N D S — T H E H O N E S T R E A D I S S T R O N G E R T H A N F I R S T A S S U M E D Demand for the building is strong: near-capacity even at 2–10 Average home attendance as % of Alumni Stadium capacity (~44,500). 2025: 41,090 (best reported figure since 2007). Reported /…
03 The 2026 reality is the center of the plan
T H E R U L E S C H A N G E D I N 2 0 2 5 — P E R M A N E N T L Y, A N D I N W R I T I N G Revenue-sharing and NIL: the new salary cap, and the money beside it Revenue-sharing — already committed • Under the House settlement (final approval June 2025), Third-party NIL runs alongside revenue-share…
THE RULES CHANGED IN 2025 — CONTINUED The portal and the facilities race: continuous rosterbuilding, and where BC actually stands The transfer portal • • The facilities arms race Roster-building is now continuous and GM-led: a single • annual window (January 2–16, 2026 — the spring window 60M…
04 A strategy that is Boston College's own
W IN AS BOSTON COL LEGE — NOT AS A PROGRAM BC CANNOT AFFO RD TO BECOME Mission as a recruiting asset, run through a disciplined roster model Mission and academics as an asset • • • In a portal era defined by churn, a stable, degree-serious, A disciplined roster-build model • BC wins by deploying…
M A R K E T, F A C I L I T I E S , A N D T H E L E V E R I N S I D E A C C E C O N O M I C S Earn the demand that already exists — and pull the one lever the conference now offers A Boston-market activation plan • • • An honest truth: a dense pro-sports market does not hand a Facilities and the ACC…
05 Cost, return, and the risk frame
C O S T — D E C O M P O S E D I N T O I T S R E A L PA R T S The capital figure, built from the strategy The revenue-share line is the commitment already made, modeled forward — not the incremental ask. The Board sees, and can defend line by line, exactly what each dollar competes for. A round…
G R O S S TO N E T — T H E W I N D O W PA R T I A L LY S E L F - F U N D S Built up from its components, offset by the match and ACC upside, to a net ask Figures rounded to the nearest $M; components may not sum exactly. Gross ~$295M; offsets ~$87–88M (the $50M match, football-attributable; ACC…
R E T U R N — W R I T T E N H O N E S T L Y, E A C H L I N E W I T H I T S M A G N I T U D E A N D I T S U N C E R TA I N T Y The returns, stated without overselling Direct and defensible • • Secondary, and hedged hard Conference revenue — the most direct return. A CFP berth • Enrollment halo —…
T H E R I S K F R A M E · § 5 . 3 — W H AT D I S T I N G U I S H E S A F I D U C I A R Y C A S E F R O M A P I T C H The downside of acting poorly, and the different cost of under-governing a commitment already made The cost of falling short after investing • • If BC deploys the incremental capital…
“This is not a choice between spending and saving — the institution already chose to spend. It is a choice between a bounded, phased, milestone-gated strategy that makes a committed investment win, and an un-governed cap-level spend whose costs arrive on their own schedule, compounding, with no…
06 A clean, phased, votable recommendation
THE PHASED STRUCTURE — THE BOARD COMMITS PHASE BY PHASE No phase is funded on the promise of the last The net ask falls in Phase 3: facilities capital is front-loaded, while the offsets — ACC viewership climb, premium-seating yield, CFP-berth value — mature in the back half. The program becomes…
T H E S H A P E T H E B OA R D WA N T S TO S E E Net ask by phase — the commitment falls as offsets mature Net ask by phase ($M), after the $50M match and ACC distribution upside. The net falls in Phase 3 as facilities capital (front-loaded) gives way to maturing offsets. Base case; honest window…
The decision this Board owes the program Approve a defined six-season championship window — built on the December 2025 commitment to fund at the cap. Fund it as a phased, incremental commitment of ~$190M–$230M net (~$207M base; ~$295M gross before offsets). Commit phase by phase, each gated by a…

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Start here LiveThe championship window — live money frame (drive it in the room) The board case — a 3-page leave-behind to read before the vote The board case — editable deck The money frame — live workbook
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