Syracuse Football: Orange Have ACC's Longest Streak of Unranked Seasons in AP Poll

On Sunday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers broke a 52-year streak in which no Cleveland professional sports team won a championship. Sparked by this, ESPN's David Hale looked at streaks in the ACC and found that Syracuse has their own undesirable streak, although not as bad as Cleveland's was.

The Syracuse Orange have the longest streak in the ACC without a top-25 season. 'Cuse football has not appeared in the AP Top 25 poll since 2001. They ranked 14th in the final AP poll that season after defeating Kansas State in the Insight Bowl.

In the time span since, Syracuse has had just five seasons in which they finished .500 or better. You'd think that one of Doug Marrone's 8-5 squads could have sneaked in to the AP Poll, but in both of those seasons Syracuse's eigth win was the bowl game. The only 8-5 team in either of those seasons to finish in the final AP Top 25 was Michigan in 2012. SU did receive votes in 2011 following their throttling of West Virginia, but that was their final win of the campaign.

There are worse streaks to make claim to, especially now that polls outside of the College Football Playoff Committee's don't matter as much as they used to. But it is unfortunately possible (and probable) the streak continues this year, especially given Syracuse's difficult schedule. 

Take a look at the most recent AP Poll appearances for the rest of the ACC in the table below.