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Quest completed: Syracuse football is going BOWLING

HOLY HELL THEY DID IT! BEFORE NOVEMBER!

Quest for Gasparilla Bowl Andy Pregler

GAS UP THE BAD BOY MOWER, WE’RE GOING BOWLIN’ Y’ALL!!!! I can’t believe I get to type this next sentence: The No. 22 Syracuse Orange football team is bowl eligible before November. Holy hell, has this been a journey, but the payoff is oh so sweet. Now we get to spend the next month just speculating which bowl the Orange will accept an invite to, not whether or not they even qualify. AHHHH! TO THE POTENTIAL QUESTS!

Andy Pregler

Sun Bowl (!!!) picks

Sporting News: Sun Bowl vs. Arizona Wildcats | El Paso, Tex.

Decided to showcase the most “outside the box” pick first. After upsetting Oregon this past weekend, Arizona’s now right back in the bowl picture. This game would pose a challenge with a healthy Khalil Tate and Kevin Sumlin actually letting the offense open it up a little bit. Just not sure if we’d get that.

Military Bowl picks

Sports Illustrated: Military Bowl vs .Army Black Knights | Annapolis, Md.

247 Sports: Military Bowl vs. Temple Owls | Annapolis, Md.

The Military Bowl is the one I personally feel Syracuse is angling towards with their renewed goals of presence and commitment to the veteran community. A large nearby alumni population + easy out-of-stadium activations make this a slam dunk. However, the guaranteed easiest sell is...

Pinstripe Bowl

ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura: Pinstripe Bowl vs Wisconsin Badgers | New York, NY

ESPN’s Mitch Sherman: Pinstripe Bowl vs Maryland Terrapins | New York, NY

SB Nation: Pinstripe Bowl vs Minnesota Golden Gophers | New York, NY

CBS Sports: Pinstripe Bowl vs Maryland Terrapins | New York, NY

Orlando Sentinel: Pinstripe Bowl vs Purdue Boilermakers| New York, NY

College Football News: Pinstripe Bowl vs Purdue Boilermakers | New York, NY

Yeah. Everyone and their mother is now putting ‘Cuse in the Pinstripe Bowl. I really don’t want to play Wisconsin (they’d run right over us), Minnesota would be TNIAAM gold but pretty boring overall, while Maryland is already slated for a ‘Cuse series and we’re set to face them early in 2019 (so let’s not provide a preview for what should be a winnable game next year).

Then there’s Purdue. On paper, it makes a ton of #Narrative sense, but I also think matchup-wise the teams are pretty even. However, the wild card is Jeff Brohm; By the time this bowl rolls around, has he taken the Louisville job? That could make things interesting.

Finally, already interested in buying tickets or telling ‘Cuse where they should play? The Athletics Department released their Bowl Interest survey on Saturday Night.

We’re going to have a TNIAAM Bowl Outlook roundtable discussing more specifics coming later, so for now, let’s celebrate that ‘CUSE IS GOING BOWLING!!!!