Syracuse Basketball: Gotham Classic Features Orange vs. Temple

The Syracuse Orange and Temple Owls are seriously making up for lost time.

Our former-future Big East rivals will be hosting us in a football game this year and now it looks like we'll be playing them in basketball as well.

Madison Square Garden's website has posted ticket information for the "Gotham Classic" between the Orange and Owls on Saturday, December 22nd at 1:00 p.m. EST.

Tickets actually go on sale Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. to take advantage of itchy Syracuse fans desperate to watch their team play again in 2012, even if it will be a little while.

The game will not be a Big East game since Temple doesn't join the conference in non-football sports until 2013. By then, we hope, Syracuse will be gone.

Temple finished the 2012 season with a 24-8 record. They won the Atlantic 10 regular season title but lost in the tournament final. They then lost to the South Florida Bulls in one of the play-in games in the NCAA Tournament. It was the fourth time in five seasons that the Owls lost their opening NCAA Tournament game.

Expect these kind of games to become the norm, especially as SU prepares to leave for the ACC. Since we're leaving behind MSG-based games against St. John's and the Big East Tournament as well as NYC-area games against Seton Hall, Rutgers and UConn, we're going to need to fill that demand as New York's College Team. At least until we convince them to move the ACC Tournament to MSG.

FYI, this means that Syracuse will now take part in the "Gotham Classic", the Big City Classic for lacrosse and the New York College Classic, a football game between SU and USC. Expect to see Syracuse playing in the Big Apple Classic, the Manhattan Classic, The City So Nice They Named It Twice Classic and any other kind of Classic with a name that somehow, someway ties in the fact that it's being played in New York City.