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The No. 17 Syracuse Orange will finish up the 2018 season against the rival No. 15/16 West Virginia Mountaineers in the Camping World Bowl; something we’re all pretty thrilled about.
WVU fans may not be as excited to see us, but at least the matchup presents an opportunity to contest the Schwartzwalder Trophy between the two schools. Or at least, it did...
Official: Schwartzwalder Trophy NOT at stake in Camping World Bowl.
— Nate Mink (@MinkNate) December 2, 2018
Syracuse.com’s Nate Mink confirms that the trophy will not be at stake once again when the Orange and Mountaineers face off on the football field, according to John Wildhack. We’ve been through this before when Doug Marrone was adamant that the Schwartzwalder Trophy wasn’t on the line back in 2012, but we’d hoped that it would be different this time around — especially after Syracuse beat WVU 38-14 in that Pinstripe Bowl.
With West Virginia’s Big 12 membership meaning nine conference games per year, and the Orange at least a few spots down the list in terms of “rivals” they’d want to schedule (we’re fourth at absolute best behind Pitt, Virginia Tech and Marshall), there are few spots available to face them in the regular season any time soon. So despite a long history of playing one another — 60 games, with Syracuse leading 33-27 — there’s little that can get these matchups more planned in the future. It means the trophy stays with Syracuse (two straight regular season wins) for what could be a pretty long time.
Feel like Syracuse is exhibiting some cowardice here? Or is this more likely a product of the Camping World Bowl wanting the focus to stay on their own trophy? I’ll write an article about the trophy every day between now and the game if it means any chance of changing someone’s mind about this.