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Better Know an ACC Opponent: Boston College

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Better Know an ACC Opponent: Boston College


In case you’ve blissfully forgotten, the Pac-12 is dead and Cal is now in a conference named after the other side of the country. If you’re reading this, it means that this new reality is not a deal breaker for you. Over the rest of the off-season, we’ll profile each and every member of this conference that Cal has joined, that will definitely 100% exist it its current form for years if not decades.

Hey, if this is what college sports is now, we’re going to enjoy the absurdity of it all. First up? Boston College!

Boston College is, in many ways, the stereotype of what a college is supposed to be in the broad American psyche. Big fancy gothic buildings, religious but lowkey about it, WASP-y, in Boston but not IN Boston . . . it’s not the Ivy League but it’s pretty damn close. Or, at least, that’s what it looks like to me, 3,000 miles away on the West Coast. Maybe I’ve offended BC fans, or Ivy Leaguers, or both? I dunno, I have trouble distinguishing all of those college in Boston.

This one has Doug Flutie and a really famous play that often competes for the title of 2nd greatest play in college football history, so they’ve got that.

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BC are relative newcomers to the ACC, joining in 2005 at the end of a round of poaching and legal wrangling with the Big East, which sounds depressingly familiar. I really miss the days when all this conference wrangling was largely confined to west of the Rockies.

No, they do not. Cal football is 0-1, with an unremarkable road loss in Joe Kapp’s final 2-9 season in 1986. Cal basketball is 0-3, and the most recent loss was when a bad BC team beat an even worse Cal team in San Francisco in Mark Fox’s debut season. Cal women’s basketball is 1-1, and I don’t have any memories of either game. We’ll do a full review after getting to know every ACC team, but I think there’s a decent chance that this is the single team that Cal has the LEAST amount of pre-existing history against. I vaguely remember being frustrated when Cal MBB lost in 2010-11 but that was the year after Jerome and company graduated and my expectations were low.

This is a tough one. In terms of athletics success, the closest match would probably be Oregon State – mostly blah in both basketball and football, but with one non-revenue sport that is generally excellent and gets a lot of local attention. But big city, private school BC is hardly a match for rural land-grant Oregon State.

Honestly, culturally BC just isn’t very similar to ANY Pac-12 school. And maybe that makes sense – after all, this is the FBS team that is literally the furthest away from Cal and the west coast more generally.

The brutal beauty of hockey as an athletic endeavor, and its perfect cultural expression during The Beanpot. If you can find a way to insult the Boston University Terriers along the way, all the better.

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If you’re looking for more football-based fun, you can praise BC as ‘offensive lineman U’ and then agree that BC is by far the best catholic university in the country no matter what those Golden Domers claim.

I think the lazy answer would be something about how fans in New England don’t care about college football, but I can’t say that trolling BC fans with the same insult we get hurled at us is particularly appealing.

There’s also all of the various Boston stereotypes, but per BC’s website, only about 30% of BC’s student body is from New England. Maybe that would make your lazy Dunkin Donuts Boston accent joke all the more enraging?

I kinda feel bad for BC here, because Wikipedia seriously lists Virginia Tech as a football rival because it dates back to 1993. Syracuse is probably the best answer in terms of frequency and longevity at the FBS level, and Notre Dame for cultural/religious reasons, but BC just doesn’t seem to have a notable football rival.

Jeff Hafley somewhat surprisingly left BC for the defensive coordinator position with the Green Bay Packers, leading to some hand-wringing about how the modern reality of college football is driving away coaches. That didn’t stop Bill O’Brien from accepting the job, and we’ll soon find out if the former Penn State and Houston Texas head coach breaks BC out of their .500 stasis, either in a good way or a bad way.

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I couldn’t find much to say about MBB coach Earl Grant other than to note that he’s got a strong suit game.

I assume it must be Doug Flutie, patron saint of undersized NFL success stories and noted Nugenix pitchman.

I’m sure Matt Ryan is plenty beloved as well, and at least there’s one super-distant Cal connection – Ryan and BC took over the #2 spot from Cal in the insane 2007 season following Cal’s loss to Oregon State, which would last into early November.

Wayne LaPierre, former chairman of the NRA, may well be hated by both sides of the aisle, after a career spent ensuring that the United States leads the western world in gun deaths while ALSO defrauding his organization out of millions!

Ice Hockey takes the cake . . . and I suppose it would be an exaggeration to suggest that BC fans care about hockey more than football, but the Hockey team absolutely outdraws the MBB team, and why shouldn’t they? There have been 76 editions of the Frozen Four, and BC has participated in 26 of them, winning five. The Eagles just lost in the men’s hockey championship game this past weekend in a heartbreaking end to a dominant season.

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Boston is a major city that’s easy to access and with a ton of history, and if Cal draws a road game during the right time of fall, you’ll get to enjoy the famous New England fall foliage. BC sports may not be much of a draw themselves, but the city is one of the best in ACC country.

Broadly? Probably. But let’s talk specifics.

Boston College basketball answers a question so horrible that none have dared ask it: What if Wyking Jones & Mark Fox, but for twice as long? Behold, perhaps the worst power conference MBB team in the nation:

To be fair, Earl Grant has BC slowly improving and the Eagles managed 20 wins for the first time since 2011 this past season. On the downside, their best player is out of eligibility and five dudes are in the portal so it’s probably the start of another rebuild on Chestnut Hill.

The women’s basketball program hasn’t made the NCAA tournament in 18 years that included an eight year run of below .500 overall records, which YIKES.

To their credit, Boston College’s football program has been remarkably consistent, though I don’t know if BC fans are super thrilled about the nature of that consistency. Since 2013, when Steve Addazio took over as coach, BC has managed 6 or 7 wins and a bowl appearance in 9 out of 11 seasons.

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On the downside, BC has not won more than 7 games in any of those seasons, and much like Cal has not produced a season over .500 in conference play since 2009.

Cal will visit BC in 2025 and 2029 and get a return trip from the Eagles in 2027. Is there any value in trying to predict how good either program will be in two, four, and six years? Probably not. But get your bets in right now on whether or not Cal and BC will still even ben in the same conference once 2029 rolls around!



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Boston, MA

Boston has one of the best public markets in America, according to USA Today readers

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Boston has one of the best public markets in America, according to USA Today readers


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It features about 30 New England food producers and artisans.

Apple cider donuts from the Red Apple Farm stand in Boston Public Market. Wendy Maeda / Globe staff

An indoor Boston market that hosts festivals, workshops, and cooking classes was just named among the best in the nation.


  • Cape Cod has the country’s No. 1 bed & breakfast, according to Tripadvisor users

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Boston Public Market was named among the 10 best public markets in America by USA Today readers on Wednesday, part of its 2024 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards. It ranked No. 7 on the list.

Here is what USA Today wrote about Boston Public Market:

This year-round, indoor market features around 30 New England food producers and artisans selling fresh produce, prepared foods, crafts, and other specialty items. Everything sold comes from New England, with a focus on seasonality.

USA Today’s 10Best

“The Market is a civic, community-building space for farmers, fishers, food entrepreneurs, neighbors, customers, and partners who come together around the common culture of food,” according to the market’s website.

Boston Public Market is hosting a free Agricultural Festival April 28 with live music, contests, face painting, planting activities, and more.

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The No. 1 public market in America is Milwaukee Public Market.

For the 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards lists, USA Today travel experts select 20 nominees in topics from food to lodging, destinations to things to do. Then the publication asks readers to cast votes to determine the top 10.

Check out the list of 10 best public markets in America.





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Boston, MA

Trial starts in conspiracy-fueled case of girlfriend charged in Boston police officer's death

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Trial starts in conspiracy-fueled case of girlfriend charged in Boston police officer's death


DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — The trial of a Massachusetts woman who prosecutors say killed her Boston police officer boyfriend by intentionally driving her SUV into him begins Monday amid allegations of a vast police coverup.

Karen Read, 44, of Mansfield, faces several charges including second degree murder in the death of John O’Keefe, 46, in 2022. O’Keefe, a 16-year police veteran, was found unresponsive outside a home of a fellow Boston police officer and later was pronounced dead at a hospital. Read has pleaded not guilty and is free on bond.

As the case unfolded, the defense’s strategy has been to portray a vast conspiracy involving a police coverup. It has earned Read a loyal band of supporters – who often can be found camped out at the courthouse — and has garnered the case national attention.

The couple had been to two bars on a night in January 2022, prosecutors alleged, and were then headed to a party in nearby Canton. Read said she did not feel well and decided not to attend. Once at the home, O’Keefe got out of Read’s vehicle, and while she made a three-point turn, she allegedly struck him, then drove away, prosecutors said.

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Prosecutors haven’t said where they think she went after that, however they allege she later became frantic after she said she couldn’t reach O’Keefe. She returned to the site of the party home where she and two friends found O’Keefe covered in snow. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. An autopsy concluded he died from head trauma and hypothermia.

One friend who returned to the home with Read recalled her wondering if she had hit O’Keefe. Investigators found a cracked right rear tail light near where O’Keefe was found and scratches on her SUV.

The defense have spent months arguing in court that the case was marred by conflicts of interest and accused prosecutors of presenting false and deceptive evidence to the grand jury. In a motion to dismiss the case, the defense called the prosecution’s case “predicated entirely on flimsy speculation and presumption.” A Superior Court judge denied the request.

Among their claims is that local and state police officers involved in the investigation failed to disclose their relationship with the host of the party. They also alleged the statements from the couple who owned the home were inconsistent.

The defense also floated various theories aimed at casting doubt on Read’s guilt, including suggestions that partygoers in the house beat up O’Keefe and later put his body outside.

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In August, Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey criticized suggestions that state and local enforcement were orchestrating a cover up, saying there is no evidence to support O’Keefe was in the Canton home where the party took place nor was in a fight.

The idea that multiple police departments and his office would be involved in a “vast conspiracy” in this case is “a desperate attempt to reassign guilt.”

Such comments have done little to silence Read’s supporters.

Most days, a few dozen supporters — some carrying signs or wearing shirts reading “Free Karen Read” — can be seen standing near the courthouse. Many had no connection to Read, who worked in the financial industry and taught finance at Bentley University before this case.

Among her most ardent supporters is a confrontational blogger Aidan Timothy Kearney, known as “Turtleboy.” He has been charged with harassing, threatening and intimidating witnesses in the case. For months, he has raised doubts about Read’s guilt on his blog that has become a popular page for those who believe Read is innocent.

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“Karen is being railroaded,” said Amy Dewar, a supporter from Weymouth from outside the courthouse where the jury was being chosen. “She did not do it.”

Friends and family of O’Keefe fear the focus on Read and the conspiracy theories are taking away from the fact a good man was killed. In interviews with The Boston Globe, they described how O’Keefe took in his sister’s two children after their parents died.

To them, Read is responsible for his death. “No one planted anything in our heads,” his brother, Paul O’Keefe told the Globe. “No one brainwashed us.”





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Boston, MA

Boston man sentenced for murder-for-hire plot against ex-wife, her boyfriend

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Boston man sentenced for murder-for-hire plot against ex-wife, her boyfriend


Mohammed Chowdhury, 47 (Credit: U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Massachusetts)

A Boston man has been sentenced to eight years in prison for trying to hire a contract killer to murder his ex-wife and her boyfriend.

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Mohammed Chowdhury, 47, offered to pay a total of $8,000 to someone he thought was a contract killer, but who was actually an undercover federal agent, to have his estranged wife and her new boyfriend killed, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire. 

His sentence also includes three years of supervised release. 

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Authorities were tipped off by an informant in November 2022 that Chowdhury was soliciting assistance to have his wife killed and the informant provided his phone number to law enforcement, prosecutors said.

Mystery object found on beach turns out to be remnant of top secret military program

Chowdhury met with the undercover agent and agreed to pay $4,000 per killing, prosecutors alleged.

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He provided the agent with photographs of his wife and the boyfriend, told them where they lived and worked, and provided their work schedules, prosecutors said. He was apprehended Tuesday when he allegedly paid a $500 deposit.

Chowdhury told agents his wife wouldn’t let him see his children and he wanted the killings to look like a beating and robbery, prosecutors said.

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“Anyone willing to hire a hitman to kill a once beloved family member and her new boyfriend is clearly a danger to the community,” Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division, said in an online news release. 

“Mr. Chowdhury literally thought he could get away with murder,” Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy said. “Mr. Chowdhury’s disturbing conduct – in combination with the misogyny and dehumanization he expressed in trying to carry out this plot – speak volumes about how dangerous he is. This case represents the most extreme form of domestic violence and we will use all tools at our disposal to protect women in abusive relationships.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was reported from Los Angeles. 

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