Duck And Run: Syracuse Schedules Oregon For 2011 Season

In case the date of this article and the link at the bottom of the article didn't tip it off, this was an April Fool's Joke...

Um, are we sure about this???

In a shocking development, according to Jim Hunt of The Oregonian, Syracuse has cleared space in its 2011 football schedule and will play the Oregon Ducks in Eugene on September 10th.

Multiple sources inside the athletic department confirmed that Oregon and Syracuse University has been in talks for weeks about a possible 2011 game. After Nevada, Oregon's September 10th opponent, dropped out in December, the Ducks have been scrambling to fill the void with a quality school and not a FCS opponent. Daryl Gross, former USC assistant athletic director and current SU athletic director, was one of the first to contact UO about the possibility.

The article doesn't give specifics but that means the Orange have dropped 1-AA opponent Rhode Island in order to make this game happen. Doing so at this late juncture surely means SU will have to be a stiff penalty to the Rams.

But the money is not what's important. What's important is that, all of a sudden, WE'RE PLAYING LAST YEAR'S NATIONAL RUNNER UP AND THE TEAM LIKELY TO BE NO. 1 IN THE NATION THIS SEASON. What. The. Frak?

And we haven't even discussed the fact that Oregon returns star tailback LaMichael James, quarterback Darron Thomas and cornerback Cliff Harris. Good lord.

To make matters even more insane, we now travel all the way across the country to play Oregon on the West Coast...and then we DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN the next week when we travel back to play USC. I am simply flabbergasted.

The Orange traditionally do not play well on the West Coast (see 2010's huge loss to a mediocre Washington team). But now we're going to play back-to-back West Coast games against the best program of the last decade and arguably the best program of 2011.

And we've given up the only sure win on our schedule to do so.

I get that Syracuse wants to schedule the best in the nation. We know Doug Marrone has said as much. But this? This is too much, too soon. WAY too much, too soon. Syracuse had a chance to continue taking steps forward next year. The Orange had a great chance to start the year 2-0 and possibly 4-1 en route to another bowl season.

Now? Not only is a win against Oregon unlikely as all hell but it's going to put us in awful shape to try and beat a still-pretty-good USC the following week.

DOC Gross and Doug Marrone have not commented yet. But I have to imagine they're going to do so soon. This is too insane of a development to stay mum on.

Read the entire article here and comment below with your thoughts. Seriously, I am in shock right now...

In case you hadn't noticed, it's April 1st today. Ya fool.