One of my first posts on the site was this one, a rundown of the Top 5 rivalries that I thought Syracuse needed to look into for yearly showdowns.
Basically, I argued that Boston College, Penn State and Maryland should be on our schedule almost every year with Auburn given some consideration based on the thrilling games the two schools have played over the years. I realized as I was writing the article that the Penn State demand has already been met. Had I dug deeper, I'd have found out that the Boston College wish had also come true. Now we just need to get Maryland and Syracuse in a room together. C'mon, what Northeastern Jewish family DOESN'T have at least one Syracuse grad and one Maryland grad. It's a no brainer!
Syracusefan.com has a great resource, listing the existing football schedules for the Orange through the year 2018 (when presumably will have cloned Donovan McNabb, eliminating our QB woes forever). Let's take a close look at what the non-conference schedule brings.
2007
Washington
Iowa
Illinois
Miami (OH)
Buffalo
Gut feelings: I think its just our speed right now. Buffalo and Miami (the non-brawly kind) should be gimmes. Not sure if that Washington team will be more like the first half of this season (4-1) or the second half (1-6). We almost beat Iowa this year and did beat Illinois so call me high-hoped (is that a phrase?) but I like it.
Quick note: You may remember at one point seeing Ohio State on the Orange's schedule for 2007. As such, you might be wondering why you don't see them anymore. Well I can't give you a solid reason (but I can speculate that it has to do with Syracuse's current status) but it was Ohio State that did the canceling. The two teams were scheduled to meet again 2010 but that too if off the table. Alas...
2008
Northwestern
Akron
Penn State
Notre Dame
OPEN
Gut feeling: There's Penn State! Welcome back, fellas. The most obvious geographical and historical non-conference rival for the Orange returns to the schedule. The Northwestern scheduling continues our trend of playing two Big Ten teams every year (are we trying to hint at something?). We end the season inviting the Irish to the Dome and hopefully in better shape than we were when we visited South Bend last year. There's still one open slot and "Toledo still owes Syracuse a home game and has an open slot for an away game in 2008." So there you go.
2009
Akron
Northwestern
Penn State
Wyoming
OPEN
Gut feeling: If there was ever a reason for you to visit Wyoming, this is it. Only the Penn State game really jumps out. There's still an open slot in there though, we'll expect a decent opponent in that one. Buffalo's nice and all, but, you know...
2010
Boston College
Akron
Washington
Virginia Tech
OPEN
Gut feeling: Well, well, well, look whose back. There's no reason to not keep playing BC, it just makes too much sense on every level. As for Virginia Tech, we had a decent rivalry going there as well, when they weren't beating us by 40. A very solid non-conference schedule so far. And keep in mind, that open slot was originally filled by Ohio State. Yikers, maybe for the best.
2011
Wake Forest
Boston College
Virginia Tech
OPEN
OPEN
Gut feeling: Why not just add Maryland and Virginia at this point. There's a good chance that 5 wins in the ACC could get us in their championship game.
2012
Northwestern
Boston College
OPEN
OPEN
OPEN
Gut feeling: I see we bought the deluxe package with BC. Very nice. Northwestern, I guess we better get used to each other.
That's probably far enough. All you need to know about years to follow is that Boston College is as permanent a fixture to our schedule as any Big East team we play. Northwestern also seems to have signed in for the long haul with us, I'm curious to know what brought on a six-game contract between two teams with no real history. All I know is, we better get it together by 2010.
Basically, I argued that Boston College, Penn State and Maryland should be on our schedule almost every year with Auburn given some consideration based on the thrilling games the two schools have played over the years. I realized as I was writing the article that the Penn State demand has already been met. Had I dug deeper, I'd have found out that the Boston College wish had also come true. Now we just need to get Maryland and Syracuse in a room together. C'mon, what Northeastern Jewish family DOESN'T have at least one Syracuse grad and one Maryland grad. It's a no brainer!
Syracusefan.com has a great resource, listing the existing football schedules for the Orange through the year 2018 (when presumably will have cloned Donovan McNabb, eliminating our QB woes forever). Let's take a close look at what the non-conference schedule brings.
2007
Washington
Iowa
Illinois
Miami (OH)
Buffalo
Gut feelings: I think its just our speed right now. Buffalo and Miami (the non-brawly kind) should be gimmes. Not sure if that Washington team will be more like the first half of this season (4-1) or the second half (1-6). We almost beat Iowa this year and did beat Illinois so call me high-hoped (is that a phrase?) but I like it.
Quick note: You may remember at one point seeing Ohio State on the Orange's schedule for 2007. As such, you might be wondering why you don't see them anymore. Well I can't give you a solid reason (but I can speculate that it has to do with Syracuse's current status) but it was Ohio State that did the canceling. The two teams were scheduled to meet again 2010 but that too if off the table. Alas... 2008
Northwestern
Akron
Penn State
Notre Dame
OPEN
Gut feeling: There's Penn State! Welcome back, fellas. The most obvious geographical and historical non-conference rival for the Orange returns to the schedule. The Northwestern scheduling continues our trend of playing two Big Ten teams every year (are we trying to hint at something?). We end the season inviting the Irish to the Dome and hopefully in better shape than we were when we visited South Bend last year. There's still one open slot and "Toledo still owes Syracuse a home game and has an open slot for an away game in 2008." So there you go.
2009
Akron
Northwestern
Penn State
Wyoming
OPEN
Gut feeling: If there was ever a reason for you to visit Wyoming, this is it. Only the Penn State game really jumps out. There's still an open slot in there though, we'll expect a decent opponent in that one. Buffalo's nice and all, but, you know...
2010
Boston College
Akron
Washington
Virginia Tech
OPEN
Gut feeling: Well, well, well, look whose back. There's no reason to not keep playing BC, it just makes too much sense on every level. As for Virginia Tech, we had a decent rivalry going there as well, when they weren't beating us by 40. A very solid non-conference schedule so far. And keep in mind, that open slot was originally filled by Ohio State. Yikers, maybe for the best.
2011
Wake Forest
Boston College
Virginia Tech
OPEN
OPEN
Gut feeling: Why not just add Maryland and Virginia at this point. There's a good chance that 5 wins in the ACC could get us in their championship game.
2012
Northwestern
Boston College
OPEN
OPEN
OPEN
Gut feeling: I see we bought the deluxe package with BC. Very nice. Northwestern, I guess we better get used to each other.
That's probably far enough. All you need to know about years to follow is that Boston College is as permanent a fixture to our schedule as any Big East team we play. Northwestern also seems to have signed in for the long haul with us, I'm curious to know what brought on a six-game contract between two teams with no real history. All I know is, we better get it together by 2010.