Tenorio: Beanpot celebrates 15 years of predictable play

Each winter, the Boston College community participates in two hallowed athletic traditions. The football team plays in a bowl game no one’s ever heard of, and the men’s hockey team plays in a tournament that no one outside Route 128 cares about: The Beanpot.It’s understandable why the BC football team always hypes up whichever anonymous bowl game it plays in come December (never in January, except once). The Eagles haven’t captured the national spotlight on the gridiron since the 1993 club upset Lou Holtz and the Fighting Irish. But it’s a little mystifying why the BC hockey program keeps blasting its trumpet about the Beanpot, which begins its 57th season of play on Monday.Let’s consider BC’s co-participants in what the Beanpot website enthusiastically calls “the official battle for Boston’s hockey bragging rights”:HARVARD: Famous alumni include John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Henry David Thoreau, and Barack Obama – none of whom exactly had a reputation for putting the biscuit in the basket (though, apparently, Barry O’Bomber could put the ball in the ocean). The Crimson hasn’t won a Beanpot since 1994.NORTHEASTERN: Developed co-op program partnering students with businesses to gain valuable work experience. Maybe the hockey team could partner with the Detroit Red Wings. The Huskies haven’t won a Beanpot since 1988.BOSTON UNIVERSITY: Hey, what’s a legit school like you doing in a place like this? The Terriers have an all-time best 28 Beanpot titles – and the 1994-95 national title – to their credit.As can be expected, the Beanpot has become a predictable battle between BC and BU. In the past 15 years, the two schools have monopolized the tourney, with the Terriers winning 11 titles and the Eagles four (including last year’s). Not only has the identity of the champion become predictable, so has the title game itself: In eight of the past 15 years, it’s been a BC-BU matchup. (And when the Crimson or Huskies miraculously get into the title game, it’s often because BC and BU meet in the opening round, which has happened five times in the past decade and a half. That won’t happen this year, as BU meets Harvard in the first round, while Northeastern faces BC.) Yes, this season all four schools have a good chance, but does anyone really think the end result will be different?This inequality goes against the entire premise of sports. The appeal of sports lies in its competitive aspect. The most exciting athletic situations are those in which each participant has a legitimate chance to win, like the Final Four in men’s basketball or the National Football League playoffs. Bill Buckner aside, which was the more exciting decade in major-league baseball history – the 1950s, when it seemed like you needed a New York zip code to play in the World Series, or the 1980s, when a different team won a title every year but one? (The Dodgers won in ’81 and ’88.)BC should be itching for a change. Last year, Nathan Gerbe led the Eagles to an NCAA title with a 4-1 Frozen Four championship game win over Notre Dame. This was the Eagles’ second national title this decade (they also won in 2001) and third overall. They deserve worthier preparation for the playoffs than a regular-season tourney they know they have a strong chance of winning.And it’s not like there’s a dearth of tougher competition around here. Imagine if BC played in a tourney with more respectable rivals, like UMass-Amherst (coached by local Toot Cahoon, played in Hockey East quarterfinals last year), Cornell (off to 14-2-3 start this season), and Rensselaer Polytechnic University (6-17-2, but a not-half-bad 5-7-1 in the ECAC). Think of the rivalries that could develop – Eastern versus Western Massachusetts, Bay State versus Empire State.It’s been a winter of discontent for BC athletic director Gene DeFilippo. His football team dropped an anonymous bowl game on New Year’s Eve, and he fired his football coach for interviewing for an NFL job he had no prayer of even getting. DeFilippo needs