Conference Expansion: Syracuse Headed To 47 Different Conferences, Apparently

When Syracuse's name first got thrown out there in an ACC rumor the other day, I said the floodgates were officially opening and we were going to spend now until the time it's settled discussing which "Syracuse to Big Ten," "Syracuse to ACC," and "Syracuse to Patriot League" rumors sounded truer than others.

Here we go.

As the madness in the SEC and Big 12 continues, presumptuous talk of Syracuse's ultimate destination has officially heated up.

Our old friend Brian Bennett thinks, of all the Northeastern schools, Syracuse makes the most sense if the Big Ten goes looking for a new one.

While Maryland might bring more to the table with the Washington, D.C., market and Rutgers offers the tantalizing (and probably mostly imagined) prospect of New York City, Syracuse in many ways is a good fit. It's an excellent academic school with strong tradition and a natural rival for Penn State, which definitely needs an Eastern partner. I don't know if Syracuse is ever going to recapture its glory days given its location, but Doug Marrone has that program back on the right track.

Frank The Tank has a hypothetical look at the Big Ten (16) that includes Cuse and Rutgers.

Others want to see the Orange end up in the ACC along with a few other familiar faces while others are under the assumption that's a foregone conclusion.

Of course, the Big East could also end up surviving and with a few new members as well. The New York Post says the conference is all about moving to 12 teams (A step behind everyone else who's going to 16, natch).

In basketball it could mean each school having home-and-home games with the other four schools in its division and then playing crossover games from schools in other divisions. Some schools wouldn't play each other in a given year.

Football would split along geographical lines with Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Cincinnati, Louisville and TCU in the West Division, and UConn, Rutgers, Syracuse, Pitt, South Florida and West Virginia in the East.

Neato! Of course, that whole pooch could be screwed if Kansas and Kansas State end up going west to the Pac-16 with the Oklahoma schools.

Let the discussion continue...