Syracuse bowl watch: Pretty much down to Camping World, Pinstripe Bowls

Saturday sucked. Good enough analysis? Cool.

Let’s look forward: The Syracuse Orange are going bowling, and now we have some intrigue! As the headline suggests, there are two bowl games everyone has penciled the Orange into. Both would be fun, both would provide interesting opponents. To the expert picks!

Andy Pregler

The Safe Pick: Pinstripe Bowl

SB Nation: Pinstripe Bowl vs. Purdue Boilermakers

CBS Sports: Pinstripe Bowl vs. Purdue Boilermakers

Stadium’s Brett McMurphy: Pinstripe Bowl vs. Michigan State Spartans

NBC Sports: Pinstripe Bowl vs. Purdue Boilermakers

Action Network: Pinstripe Bowl vs. Northwestern Wildcats

Athlon Sports: Pinstripe Bowl vs. Purdue Boilermakers

This is the odds-on favorite after Saturday. People were reselling tickets for 100% above face value pregame, most of the ‘Cuse fans trying blocked out by the Orange’s low ticket allotment for the Notre Dame “home” game. The Pinstripe Bowl committee noticed, and should Pitt leapfrog Syracuse in the CFP rankings, they’d be in play for the Camping World Bowl first. That leaves the Pinstripe Bowl waiting with open arms.

Still in Play: Camping World

ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura: Camping World Bowl vs. West Virginia Mountaineers

ESPN’s Mitch Sherman: Camping World Bowl vs. Iowa State Cyclones

247 Sports: Camping World Bowl vs. Iowa State Cyclones

NJ.com: Camping World Bowl vs. Iowa State Cyclones

The ACC has a “one-win rule” in effect for Tier 1 bowls versus the lesser games — to keep teams with the highest win totals in the best games — but it’s unclear if that applies to the Camping World Bowl versus the Tier 1 games. There’s also the potential for the conference to automatically puts its top-ranked remaining team in the College Football Playoff rankings there — a move that would greatly benefit the Orange should they win at Boston College.

It’s notable that the ACC has a rule that the losing team in the league championship game must play in a Tier 1 bowl, but that doesn’t include the Camping World, which is above that collection of games (Pinstripe/Sun/Belk/Music City). So Pitt wouldn’t leapfrog the Orange just by way of winning the Coastal and a head-to-head win.

Syracuse still needs to beat BC, though, to have any shot at the game.

Things Get Weird: Sun Bowl

Sporting News: Sun Bowl vs Arizona State Sun Devils

SI: Sun Bowl vs California Golden Bears

Now imagine a scenario where the Camping World Bowl takes NC State and the Sun Bowl thinks Syracuse is the best of Pitt, BC and UVA. That’s how we get here, which isn’t crazy! But I think ‘Cuse would rather return to New York than try and make El Paso work. And since the Tier 1 games all have equal selection status, it’s likely the Pinstripe wants them most anyway.