Syracuse vs. USC Televised On ABC, Set For 3:30pm ET

The marquee game on the 2012 Syracuse Orange football schedule is a rematch with the likely-No. 1 USC Trojans at MetLife Stadium on September 8th. It turns out, ABC noticed it as well and will televise the game nationally at 3:30pm ET.

It is SU's fifth game in 2012 slated for television and the fourth national broadcast.

The other four Syracuse football games slated for national television at this time are home games against Pittsburgh (Oct. 5) and Connecticut (Oct. 19) selected for ESPN, while SU's game at Minnesota on Sept. 22 will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network and at Temple in the regular season finale on November 23 in a game that will be televised on ESPN or ESPN2.

Well, that's what you wanted, right? You trade the comfy confines of the Carrier Dome for a NYC-area "home" game that the entire nation can watch. And so, I say to you, DOC Gross and Doug Marrone...I hope you can make good on this.

That's about as good a time as I think Syracuse can ask for. USC will still be playing much earlier than they're used to, though I don't know how much of a difference that will actually make. We're gonna need a lot more than a time zone shift here.

SU is really driving home this "New York's College Classic" theme, though I don't see anyone else using it. It's kinda like when somebody tries to give themselves a nickname but everyone refuses to buy in because it's so forced.

As for the rest of Syracuse's schedule, I'm surprised no one has grabbed the Northwestern game yet. Seems like an easy ESPN2 spacefiller. And the rest of the Big East games (Rutgers, Louisville, USF & Cincy) all have TV potential depending on how we're doing at that point.

Still, to have five (mostly) nationally-televised games at this point is a good thing. Winning those nationally-televised games is another story...