Baked Beans: The Beanpot

The 55th Beanpot concluded last night when Boston University beat Boston College 2-1.

The Beanpot (a four team tournament between Boston's four college hockey teams, Boston College (BC), Boston University (BU), Harvard, and Northeastern) is a unique event because 1) Few cities have four colleges with Division 1 sports programs and 2) Few sports provide an opportunity for small, academic colleges like Harvard to compete with larger athletic budget schools like BC. You couldn't have a college basketball tournament between St. John's, Columbia, Manhattan and Fordham. For one, nobody would care and in the 80's St. John's would've blown every team out.

Recently The Beanpot has become more of a joke to Boston sports fans. Mainly because it starts the day after the Super Bowl (three out of five years, some smartass has called WEEI saying "Enough about this football game, I'd like to talk about The Beanpot!") and its also seen as just a reason for the priviledged youth of Boston's colleges to drink their asses off in the bars surrounding the Boston Garden/Shawmut Center/Fleet Center/TD Banknorth Garden.

As is, The Beanpot isn't even that competitive. Boston University usually beats Boston College in the final every single year. As happened this year, BU won it's 28th title last night.