The Final Countdown: Where Syracuse Football Stands With Historical & Big East Rivals

As the Syracuse Orange football team prepares to leave the Big East and head to the ACC, let's take a look at the school's most often-play opponents, a list that will change drastically in the coming years...

No. 1 - Penn St. Nittany Lions (70)

No. 2 - Pittsburgh Panthers (67)

No. 3 - Colgate Raiders (66)

No. 4 - West Virginia Mountaineers (59)

No. 5 - Boston College Eagles (46)

No. 6 - Rutgers Scarlet Knights (42)

No. 7 - Temple Owls (36)

No. 8(t) - Maryland Terrapins (34)

No. 8(t) - Cornell Big Red (34)

No. 10 - Holy Cross Crusaders (28)

No. 11 - Navy Midshipmen (27)

No. 12(t) - Rochester Yellowjackets (25)

No. 12(t) - Hobart Statesmen (25)

No. 14 - Columbia Lions (24)

No. 15 - Miami Hurricanes (22)

It's a fascinating list to look at for a couple reasons. First and foremost, there are at least six schools on that list that Syracuse will probably never ever play again (save for a another Colgate pasting, sorry). Second, only two of those schools will remain in the Big East after this season, telling you everything you need to know about the historical depth of our current Big East football rivalries. Third, the amount of ACC schools on that list (four) is a pretty decent chunk. And as for schools like Penn State and Navy, we'll be seeing both of them on the non-conference schedule in the next few years so expect those numbers to keep growing.

So as we enter the final Big East football season, where will this leave us with those rivals? In most cases, we've only played one another a handful of times so it's not like we're leaving a lot of history on the table. Gut feeling is that we won't go out of our way to schedule current Big East opponents too often so let's see what we're playing for, historically-speaking, in 2012. From the looks of the streaks, we're playing to end a whole lot of losing ones...

School: Cincinnati Bearcats

All-Time Series: 5-7

First Game: 1993 (24-21 W)

Streak: Lost One

School: Connecticut Huskies

All-Time Series: 2-6

First Game: 2004 (42-30 W)

Streak: Lost Five

School: Louisville Cardinals

All-Time Series: 5-6

First Game: 1985 (48-0 W)

Streak: Lost Three

School: Rutgers Scarlet Knights

All-Time Series: 30-11-1

First Game: 1914 (14-14 T)

Streak: Lost One

School: South Florida Bulls

All-Time Series: 1-6

First Game: 2005 (0-27 L)

Streak: Lost One

School: Temple Owls

All-Time Series: 25-10-1

First Game: 1944 (7-7 T)

Streak: Lost One