The Boston College Eagles and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets will open the 2016 season in Ireland, the two schools officially announced on Thursday.
Boston College and Georgia Tech will meet in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic at Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Saturday, Sept. 3, 2016. The game will be televised by ESPN2 at 12:30pm local time/7:30am ET (time is per ESPN).
Aviva Stadium, which seats 49,000 for American Football, played host to the “Emerald Isle Classic” in 2012 between Notre Dame and Navy. The Fighting Irish won that game 50-10 before a crowd of 48,820.
News of a possible Boston College-Georgia Tech matchup in Ireland began to surface in December. At that time, the game was rumored to be played at Croke Park.
The contest will count as an ACC home game for Boston College, which was slated to host Georgia Tech in Chestnut Hill.
To make way for the game, Georgia Tech pushed back their Sept. 3, 2016 home game against Mercer one week to Sept. 10. The wheels were set in motion for that move in November and finalized in April.
“I know the young men on our team will remember this experience for a lifetime, and I’m so excited for them,” BC head football coach Steve Addazio said. “They will get to explore a new country, be immersed in a new culture, and then play the first game on the opening Saturday of the college football season. It’s great that we will get to share this experience with our conference friends from Georgia Tech. In BC and Georgia Tech, you have two outstanding academic institutions with great football traditions, and we are grateful for the opportunity to showcase our programs in Ireland.”
“I’m excited for our guys to have the opportunity to experience playing in Ireland,” Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson said. “Our players really enjoyed it at Navy when we played in Dublin in 1996. It’ll be something they remember for the rest of their lives.”
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