Syracuse Football: Orange Add Holy Cross to 2019 Schedule

As you might recall, we were starting to get a little concerned about future Syracuse Orange football scheduling. In particular, the 2016 schedule, which needs a non-conference (preferably road) game to wrap up the non-conference slate. Two of the options spelled out in that post (Georgia State and Army) have already been taken off the table by other, quicker-acting programs. Sooooo, yeah... hope we get around to 2016 soon, because our only options left are: FAU, Middle Tennessee, Old Dominion, Ohio and Western Michigan.

Syracuse isn't completely sitting on its hands doing nothing, though, despite that lingering hole in the schedule. An "exciting" piece of news came across Twitter within the last hour:

.@CuseFootball adds Holy Cross to 2019 schedule http://t.co/bcsg3uWFrZ

— Syracuse Athletics (@Cuse) April 1, 2015

Oh, great.

Now this isn't to be overly negative. We wanted the program to get out ahead of future scheduling, and by locking up Holy Cross as the opener for 2019, we now have two non-conference games already confirmed for that season (the other being Maryland). But with more pressing openings available, you'd think we'd get on one of those instead, right?

***

Still, we've added yet another opponent to future schedules, and that's a step in the right direction for Syracuse football. SU now has at least two opponents already confirmed in three of the next five seasons, so that's... better than it was.

For those who wanted to know more about Holy Cross: The Crusaders went 4-8 last season in the Patriot League, and haven't had a winning record since 2011, when they went 6-5. Their last "great" season was when they won the Patriot League with a 9-3 record in 2009, but other than that there isn't a whole lot to brag about in terms of Holy Cross football. At one point, they were Boston College's rival (hands off, you guys!), until the Crusaders downgraded to FCS and football fell off for them. They played in the 1945 Orange Bowl, but lost to Miami, 13-6.

***

Lets' hope this is the start of a whole bunch of scheduling news. With a lot of other schools locking things up for a decade and more, Syracuse has to move past in order to avoid being left out of the best opponents (for us) in non-conference play.