Aaaaaand Big East Football has now gone to plaid.

According to the Star-Ledger, the Syracuse Orange and Rutgers Scarlet Knights could play each other twice during the 2012 football season as a contingency plan to fill the void left by West Virginia bolting to the Big 12.

This is according to two people "familiar with the contingency plans being discussed."

At first glance it sounds kinda nutty. I'm sure someone is researching whether or not two teams have played one another twice in the regular season during the "modern era" but it can't be often.

But when you think about it, it's just crazy enough to work. Think about it. Syracuse is already having a tough time filling the fifth and final non-con spot on the schedule. We've already scheduled a FCS team (Stony Brook) so avoiding scheduling two of them is critical. If WVU leaves, the chances we can find two FBS opponents, while competing with every other Big East school to do so, seems impossible.

Playing one team twice in a home-and-home solves the problem. Plus, it's Rutgers, whom we hate and would love the opportunity to beat twice.

It could be the quick fix for all Big East teams to pair up like this and solve the potential issue. Of course, we have to wait and find out if West Virginia is in fact leaving (They are). Once they do, let's see how the dominoes fall.

For the record, I checked and Syracuse has played a team more than once in a regular season before, but not since 1897 (Buffalo).

Hubert Davis only knows 47 words and seven of them are "Syracuse doesn't have a go-to guy." For all our sakes, lets hope that he watched the Syracuse Orange defeat the Georgetown Hoyas 64-61 in overtime Wednesday night so that he is aware of what Kris Joseph is capable of.

Joseph exploded for a career-high 29 points and hit the game-winning shot in overtime to propel the Orange over the hated Hoyas. He was simply on fire all night, adding five rebounds and three steals to his stat sheet. KrisJo was everything we hoped he'd be on this evening and let's all pray to God that he keeps this up.

Not to be forgotten is Fabricio Melo. The Brazilian waxed the Hoyas for eleven points, seven rebounds and six blocks. Fab has developed a swagger that's been missing from the Syracuse front-court for some time, even wagging a Mutumbo-like finger at once point.

Dion Waiters scored nine points, grabbed five boards and dished three assists. Scoop scored three, dished eight assists and had a typical "NO/YES/NO/YES/NO" Scoop Jardine evening (the play at the end of regulation was Classic Scoopid). C.J. Fair added five points but had a relatively off-night.

Six Orange scored and only six played double-digit minutes. Now, I'm not saying that the dirty little secret of Syracuse Basketball is that we don't actually play our depth and usually only play 6-7 guys, but...we kinda do. Clearly, Rak and MCDubz almost only get significant time in blowouts and James Southerland is a non-factor more often than he's a factor. BMK is in the doghouse these days.

When it matters most, we're a 6-7 player rotation. Hear that, Ron Morris?

The Orange looked like they were in deep trouble in the first-half as the Hoyas abused us on rebounds and slowed the game just enough to take away our transition. Not to mention they dared to try and out-zone us. While it seems to take forever for SU to adjust, they finally did and then it turned into another classic SU-G'town battle. Of course the game went to overtime because...of course it did.

And of course, we have to recognize that the win gives Jim Boeheim his 880th career coaching victory, moving him past North Carolina legend Dean Smith for third on the NCAA’s Division I list. Mazel Tov!

One last note on the refs. Maybe I'm biased cause we won but I thought it was one of the most well-refereed games I've seen in the Big East in a long time. They let'm play. They called fair and smart fouls and kept the dumb ones to a minimum. I think we're just so used to horrible officiating to the point where we get pissed off when refs DON'T make bad calls, so it's hard to appreciate. However, no coincidence that Tim Higgins and Jim Burr were far away from the Dome tonight.

The Orange now continue Hell Week with another Dome tilt against UConn on Saturday before heading to the dreaded confines of the YUM! to face Louisville. They overcame a tough start against a quality opponent and watched as their go-to guy emerged and took over. Great win and great addition to the rivalry.

The No. 12 Georgetown Hoyas and No. 2 Syracuse Orange have met many times in the Carrier Dome, but Wednesday night might be the last time they do it as in Big East battle. You can be sure both teams will make it count.

This will be the 87th encounter between the Hoyas and Orange. Syracuse leads the all-time series 47-39 after it picked up a 58-51 victory over Georgetown last season on Feb 26th, 2011 in Washington, DC.

Jason Clark is pacing Georgetown this season with a team-highs of 15.2 points and 1.8 steals per game. The senior guard has shot 56.2 percent from the field in his last two outings. Hollis Thompson and Henry Sims are both vital to the Hoyas' success as well. Thompson is second in the team with a scoring average of 13.7 PPG. Sims had team-highs of 13 points, nine rebounds, and five assists in the recent win over South Florida. Otto Porter is reeling in a team-high 6.6 RPG.

But what else do you need? It's Syracuse vs. Georgetown. If you can't get up for this one, you're probably a UConn fan.

Leave your pre-, in- and post-game comments below.

G'ORANGE!

So, apparently, it's Rivalry Week, another contrived marketing device to dupe us into watching more college basketball. Like we really needed a reason. The highlight of this year's edition is no doubt tonight's tilt in the Carrier Dome between the Georgetown Hoyas and the Syracuse Orange. Now, I'll admit that I don't really know what a Hoya is, nor do I really care. But I know enough to hate them with every ounce of disdain I can muster. Georgetown is the rival to which Syracuse fans compare all others, even if the Hoyas haven't been worth a damn since Allen Iverson took his corn rows to Philadelphia.

Much has been made of another game being staged tonight between Duke and North Carolina. With merely a single point separating the two in the last 75 games, the battle for Tobacco Road has to be the greatest rivalry in college basketball, right?

Given the attention this particular statistic has gotten leading up to tonight's contest between Duke and UNC, I was curious to see how G'Town/Syracuse matched up in this regard. If these numbers are the sole measure, the battle between the Orange and the Hoyas can't be far behind.

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Here we go, Orangeladies and Orangegentlemen. According to Brett McMurphy, who is rarely ever wrong about these things, West Virginia and the Big East have finally sat down to talk about a buyout in the range of $20M, ending their legal battles and allowed the Mounties to leave for the Big 12 in 2012.

West Virginia and the Big East Conference are nearing agreement on a settlement worth at least $20 million that would resolve all issues between both parties, college football industry sources told CBSSports.com.

The Mountaineers will join the Big 12 for the 2012-13 school year. However, in a bizarre twist, sources told CBSSports.com that West Virginia officials have contacted future Big East members to see if one could join in 2012 instead of 2013.

Here's how f***ed Syracuse and the rest of the Big East schools will be in 2012 if we wither don't find a replacement or move to the ACC....

Syracuse has already put a FCS school on its schedule (Stony Brook) and still has an open slot to fill. The pool of available schools is pretty meh. Without West Virginia, not only would Syracuse have to fill ANOTHER spot on the schedule, but they'd be left with six conference games. Half of Syracuse's schedule will be non-con games and the chances that two of them will be against FCS schools is high.

In other words, assemble Voltron and let's jump ship RIGHT NOW. It's every school for themselves at this point and we've got a lifeboat sitting there waiting for us.

DOC Gross, call whoever you need to call to get $20M ready, walk it over to Marinatto's door, dump it on the floor, ring the doorbell, RUN and don't stop until you're in Greensboro.

More to come, I'm sure...

When Dan Conley and Jimmy Brumbaugh were "repositioned" within the Syracuse Athletics department, that opened up two spots on the staff. The first was filled by Steve Morrison, a former NFL linebacker, to take over the same position.

That left one void and today it was announced that former New York Jets defensive coordinator Donnie Henderson will be the new defensive backs coach for the Syracuse Orange. Doug Marrone officially introduced both new coaches today:

"We are excited to have Steve and Donnie join the staff," Marrone said. "I look forward to working with Donnie again after having been on the staff with him with the New York Jets and to having Steve be reunited with Scott Shafer and Tim Daoust from their time at Western Michigan. They bring a great deal of experience to our program."

Coach Shafer had mentored the defensive backs last season but will focus on his coordinator duties now. Tim Daoust will now mentor the entire defensive line.

It's all about connections for the Syracuse staff. Morrison worked with Shafer and Daoust at Western Michigan while Marrone worked with Henderson with the New York Jets.

This is Henderson's first college position after stints with the Baltimore Ravens, Arizona Cardinals, Detroit Lions, Jacksonville Jaguars and even the California Redwoods of the UFL. He was a member of the Ravens' defensive staff when they won the Super Bowl and you better believe he'll be wearing that ring when he meets with recruits.

Henderson is also a Baltimore native, which is an area that I don't believe we have a solid recruiting presence at the moment. Coupled with Morrison, the new hires bring a ton of NFL experience, a lot of coaching experience and solid connections to hit the ground running with in 2012.

Breaking down No. 2 Syracuse's zone efficiency - Luke Winn - SI.com
Melo does not have the Orange's lowest DRating (that belongs to Waiters), but it's clear that Melo has the biggest impact. His engagement rate, or DPoss%, of 26.1 is the highest on the team, and the fact that he's able to maintain a strong DRating (86.5) while impacting so many plays is impressive. Syracuse's entire 2-3 seems to take its cues from Melo.

Pregame Party: Georgetown at Syracuse - Casual Hoya
Games at the Carrier Dome are the worst. The stadium has all the charm and geographic convenience of the trophy piece arena of a Central Asian dictatorship and, in a desperation for recognition that would be right at home in such an international scofflaw, is constantly setting dubious attendance records. To make things worse, the Hoyas haven't exactly had the run of the place over the JTIII era, firing blanks for nearly a decade until last season, when Georgetown finally broke through for an eight-point win.

Q&A with ESPN¿s Paul Carcaterra - baltimoresun.com
If you see Syracuse in the ACC and you’re a Southerner, there’s more of an interest to play in that conference. The flip side is there will be a tremendous talent in upstate New York and those players aren’t going to be complete locks to go to Syracuse. I think it’s two-fold.

Donahue family thrives on SU Lacrosse team - YNN, Your News Now
Redshirt-Senior attackman Collin Donahue and his brother, freshman attacker Dylan, are playing together for the first time. And watching them the whole way is their father, SU assistant coach Kevin Donahue.

Syracuse faces a tough road of three games in six days | syracuse.com
"I don’t even look at the schedule," he said. "I know our next game is Georgetown. And that’s it. We approach every game the same way."

Donovan says Kentucky has champions' 'disposition' | syracuse.com
"If you're looking at talent, I think Kentucky has clearly six guys who are going to be first-round picks on their team. I don't know that Syracuse has six first-round draft picks, but they have really, really good talent and they have incredible length," said Donovan, who won national titles in 2006 and '07. "It would be a heck of a game."

Syracuse University lacrosse goalie missed Sunday's scrimmages with a hand injury | syracuse.com
The coach now must make a decision. Does he redshirt the rookie, a two-time U.S. Lacrosse All-American at Shenendehowa High and Inside Lacrosse’s No. 2 rated goalie last year, and hope Lerman and Lamolinara can get the job done? Or does he put in Wardwell on Sunday when Syracuse plays Maryland at noon in the Carrier Dome in its final preseason scrimmage and thus burn the redshirt?

Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun won't on bench for Saturday's showdown vs. Syracuse at Carrier Dome | syracuse.com
The school announced Wednesday that Calhoun would not be at the game at Syracuse. He missed last Saturday’s win over Seton Hall and Monday’s loss at Louisville.

Syracuse vs Georgetown tonight: The beginning of the end of a great rivalry? | syracuse.com
When these two teams no longer occupy space in the same conference, can this rivalry carry on with the same intensity it has all these years?Syracuse vs Georgetown tonight: The beginning of the end of a great rivalry? | syracuse.com

Syracuse Orange Basketball - Orange Scouting Report: Georgetown
The big key will be turnovers. If the Orange can force Georgetown to turn it over, they will be able to get out in transition where they are the best in the country. Easy buckets will lead to a faster paced game, which is exactly what Syracuse wants.

Cuse Countdown looks at all the key match ups for SU vs. Georgetown as part of rivalry week.

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