Syracuse football: Orange will play West Virginia in Camping World Bowl

The No. 17 Syracuse Orange are headed to Orlando! The Orange will be playing the West Virginia Mountaineers in the Camping World Bowl on Friday December 28 at 5:15 p.m. ET on ESPN.

After a 9-3 season, Dino Babers will head to his first bowl with Syracuse, after finishing with the second-highest ranking in the ACC. In any other year, the Orange, by virtue of being the second highest ranked ACC team, would play in the Orange Bowl with Clemson in the Playoff. However, with the Orange Bowl as part of this year’s CFP, Syracuse goes through the normal ACC bowl selection procedure (which doesn’t include the Orange or Citrus this year).

With nine wins, the Orange were guaranteed a Tier 1 Bowl game, which included Pinstripe, Sun, Belk, and Gator/Music City Bowls. The only bowl with priority over these four was the Camping World Bowl, who was limited to taking either ‘Cuse or N.C. State since they were the league’s only nine-win teams this year.

The Alamo Bowl ended up doing us a favor by picking Iowa State, so that sent the West Virginia Mountaineers to Orlando with us. We last faced the rival ‘Eers in the 2012 Pinstripe Bowl, a 38-14 win for Syracuse. SU’s won three straight in the series overall.

How are we feeling? Plan on attending? Let’s talk this out in the comments.