Future Syracuse football schedules may be completed soon, per John Wildhack

Syracuse Orange athletic director John Wildhack’s been awful chatty lately, which is great for us, both as fans and media.

The most recent conversation? A Q&A with Syracuse.com’s Chris Carlson on Carrier Dome renovations, NCAA Tournament sites, assistant football coaches and of course, Orange football scheduling.

Wildhack provides some good feedback on all of those items, even if not concrete updates, so you should definitely read it all. But the item we’ll focus on here is definitely (again) football scheduling. Per the interview:

Q: Ok, so with the football schedule, we hear a lot about how you guys are behind some other programs. You still have one game to fill (in 2018). You have two scheduled the year after that, and then just one (at home in 2020) and one (on the road in 2021). Do you have to keep the schedule in those years clear because you're not sure about the availability of the Dome?

A: That's a factor. It does complicate things a little bit. But what we're trying to do is define, all right, what's our philosophy with regard to the non-conference schedule. I think when you look at who we play in our division each year and the cross over, listen, do we want to play good football teams? Yes. We also want to give our team and our coaches and our fans a chance to see wins.

Q: Do you feel like you're behind in scheduling? Do you feel the need to change that?

A: No. I feel good where we are. We're in conversations with people that I think will fill some of those holes, I would think in relatively short order.

Q: Anybody you're willing to mention at the moment?

A: No, I'm going to let you speculate.

The big takeaways there:

• Our constant aggravation about scheduling here has gotten to the point where it’s now become fact for much of the fan base, and even the media. This is how news works today, and I’m totally fine with it.
• Dome renovations are absolutely affecting this thing, which I get to an extent. But what’s the excuse for the past 10 years?
• Wildhack thinks some upcoming scheduling holes will be filled in relatively short order.

The last part’s great, since as Carlson mentions, there are still a ton of holes in the near-term. Wildhack mentioned the schedule last week too and said he’d like to see it be more manageable in the future. So if you’re scoring at home, this hopefully means we’re about to announce a 10-year scheduling arrangement with (insert trash opponent in advantageous recruiting area).

“Short order” is not an exact amount of time, but it’s one we’ll assume means at some point this summer. At the very least, it’s nice to see Wildhack be so communicative on these matters. Now we’ll wait and see if and when that communication turns into action to get the schedule ironed out for the next few years.

Cool? Cool. I’ll stop bitching about this for a bit, and let Wildhack do his work.