Syracuse basketball eligible for summer foreign tour

As it stands, the Syracuse Orange basketball team will have one upperclassman on its roster next season. By eligibility, Syracuse will have four freshmen, three sophomores and one player in his penultimate year with zero seniors. What Syracuse lacks in experience can be made up for in talent, but getting some extra experience wouldn’t hurt either.

Per NCAA bylaw 30.7, Syracuse could take advantage of an offseason foreign tour with a few provisos.

• 30.7.4 Time Lapse Between Tours. An institution shall not engage in a foreign tour in each sport more than once every four years.

Teams are only allowed to take a foreign tour once every four years, duh. Syracuse’s last foreign tour was in 2013 when the Orange went up to Canada, not Italy. That helped a young Syracuse backcourt (Tyler Ennis, Trevor Cooney and Michael Gbinije) get some extra experience. It fueled a Maui Invitational title and a 25-0 start to the season. Not bad.

• 30.7.5 Maximum Number of Contests/Competition Dates. A team shall be limited to a maximum of three football games, ten basketball games, or ten contests or dates of competition in any other sport during and as part of the tour.

You think Jim really wants to play 10 games?

• 30.7.6 Opponents. The team shall not compete during the tour against other American teams (colleges or the U.S. teams) other than teams composed of U.S. armed forces personnel stationed at U.S. military bases in foreign countries.

Shit, you mean even though Georgetown plays akin to a mid-major team from a foreign country you won’t allow it?

(Insert joke about Syracuse losing the last two games to Georgetown here)

• 30.7.8 Timing of Tour. The tour shall be scheduled during the summer vacation period between the institution’s spring and fall terms or during any other vacation period published in the institution’s official catalog. All travel to and from the foreign country must take place during such a vacation period. Further, an institution may not engage in a foreign tour during the period beginning 30-days prior to the first permissible practice date until the first scheduled contest or date of competition in the championship segment of the institution’s playing and practice season in the applicable sport. However, if the team crosses the international date line during the tour, the change of date will be disregarded and the equivalent time as measured in the United States will be used to determine the institution’s vacation period.

Okay, that seems rather lengthy to just say you gotta take the tour in the summer between the spring and fall semester. Who’s the jerk who asked the one-off question about the international date line, a Connecticut alum?

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Also of note, bylaw 30.7.2 states that student-athletes will have had to have been enrolled for the previous semester. So essentially the incoming freshmen will have to enroll in the summer semester (a common practice for incoming freshmen basketball players anyway) to be eligible.

The team will also only be allowed to practice 10 days before departure. Players can have their passports sponsored by the school if need be and each player is also given a per diem of $20 per day. Hey, that’s C$26.67 when you cross the border! Don’t spend all that cash in one place.

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So what say you, Orange nation? Is it a no brainer for SU to take advantage and get the young guys some experience? Leave your thoughts in the comment section.