In addition to success on the gridiron, Boston College football teams are consistently ranked among the nation's best for academic achievement[12] and graduation.

[13] In 2005, 2006, and 2007, the football team's Academic Progress Rate was the highest of any school that finished the season ranked in the AP or ESPN/USA Today Coaches' polls.

[15] Some of the original team's alumni had particularly significant careers: Joseph F. O'Connell was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts, and running back James Carlin became president of the College of the Holy Cross.

'[16] The 1939 team finished the regular season with a 9–1 record, and the Eagles were ranked in the final AP Poll for the first time in school history, at No.

Trailing 7–13 in the fourth quarter, Tennessee's Bob Foxx missed a short field goal attempt with three minutes remaining, and Boston College took over on its own 20–yard line.

All the Eagles needed to do to secure its first ever AP national championship was to beat rival Holy Cross (4–4–1) in the final game of the regular season.

Those efforts were good enough to earn him a new four-year contract on November 22, 1955, but even after four more winning seasons - he was fired on December 3, 1959, after a year in which Eagle fans had subjected him to constant verbal abuse.

[39] The best player for the Eagles during Bicknell's tenure was quarterback Doug Flutie (of Natick, Massachusetts), who played for Boston College from 1981 to 1984.

Bicknell's final record at Boston College was 59–55–1, took the Eagles to four bowl games, and won the Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy (awarded to the 'Eastern champion' in Division I FBS) twice: 1983 and 1984.

On the last play of the game, Flutie rolled out right away from the defense and threw a Hail Mary pass that was caught in the end zone by senior wide receiver Gerard Phelan, giving BC a miraculous 47–45 win.

Coughlin, who left BC for the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars,[56] would go on to become head coach of the New York Giants, winning two Super Bowls: XLII, XLVI (both against the New England Patriots).

The team was also helped by increased exposure on the national stage due to the move to the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and, later, improved facilities in the form of the Yawkey Center.

[63] The 2001 season was a satisfying one for O'Brien as the Eagles finished 8–4 and ranked in the top 25 in both major polls, capped by a 20–16 win over SEC powerhouse Georgia in the Music City Bowl.

Running back William Green rushed for 1,559 yards and was the second-leading rusher in the country and a consensus first-team All-America pick.

[67] Along with Steve Logan, Jagodzinski brought a high flying offensive attack which was very different from Tom O'Brien's short passing game style.

After his first season at BC, Tom O'Brien protegees Matt Ryan and Gosder Cherilus were selected in the first round of the NFL draft.

Following the 2008 season, Jagodzinski interviewed for the vacant New York Jets head coaching job, despite being warned not to do so by athletic director Gene DeFilippo.

[70] Prior to the 2009 season, linebacker and reigning ACC Defensive Player of the Year Mark Herzlich was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer.

The feature component of Addazio's run-heavy offense, senior running back Andre Williams emerged as a standout player and rushed for 2,177 yards on the year.

The mark earned him a top-10 spot on the all-time NCAA record list for most rushing yards in a season, and the Doak Walker Award as the best running back in the country.

[80] On February 9, 2024, BC hired Andover, Massachusetts native Bill O'Brien, who formerly served as offensive coordinator at Alabama as well as the NFL's New England Patriots.

[83] For much of its history, Boston College played as an independent, as did the majority of what are now labeled as Division I FBS football-playing schools located in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

The process of picking an Eastern Champion eventually came to be symbolized by the Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy awarded by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority beginning in 1936.

As a result, the Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy, voted on by a panel of sports writers in New York, became the de facto conference championship for those schools.

Additionally, they accepted an invitation to the 2021 Military Bowl, however it was cancelled the day before it was set to be played due to COVID-19 cases in the Boston College program.

Starting in 2008, the Boston College Gridiron Club created the O'Rourke-McFadden Trophy to honor the friendly rivalry between the Eagles and the Tigers.

[90] The trophy is named after BC's Charlie O'Rourke and Clemson's Banks McFadden, star players of their respective teams when the Eagles and Tigers first played in the 1940 Cotton Bowl.

The rivalry was recently renewed in 2018 as the Eagles handily won a 62–14 victory at Chestnut Hill; a 2020 matchup was scheduled to take place but was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Eagles and the Fighting Irish have met once in the postseason; Notre Dame defeated Boston College in the 1983 Liberty Bowl by a score of 19–18.

Boston College is on a 11-game winning streak vs UMass, dating back to 1979, after beating the Minutemen 45–28 in the 2021 season, and they lead the all-time series 22–5.