What does the alternate timeline where Jim Boeheim attends Colgate look like?

As Jim Boeheim has mentioned himself in Bleeding Orange, there was a chance he never played for the Syracuse Orange (men). With a $100 deposit already sent, the nearby Colgate Raiders seemingly presented his best chance to play — before Sodus High School’s coach called SU’s Fred Lewis to tell him about Boeheim.

Somewhere in the multiverse, though, this never happens, and Jim potentially goes on to become a Raiders player and maybe even legendary coach down the line. This obviously has some far-reaching implications for Colgate, Syracuse and the wider basketball world. So we were wondering what that alternate timeline looks like.

Welcome to Earth-11578...

For starters, this blog is still Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician, but that Troy Nunes played for the Northeast powerhouse Colgate football program. As Syracuse faded into the background a bit when the basketball program dropped off, it never felt the need to build a larger football stadium. Instead, they opted to head down a run when Division I split.

Meanwhile, Colgate became a founding member of the Big East with coach Jim Boeheim at the helm. The Raiders were perennial powers in the conference, winning it all in 1987, and again in 2003. When the ACC came calling in 2011 in part due to its strong football and basketball programs, Colgate had to make the jump.

Boeheim is now in his 44th year at the helm for the Raiders, with three championships and seven Final Fours under his belt. Jack Ferguson and Buddy Boeheim make up a lethal backcourt for Colgate — one that should beat the one-time rival Syracuse Wolves with ease on Wednesday night. Colgate’s beaten the Wolves in 43 straight matchups to-date.

In the ACC, Colgate is surrounded by familiar schools to what those know here. Though South Carolina never leaves the league as they do in our primary continuity here, and Wake Forest never leaves the city of Wake Forest, N.C.

Coach Greg Robinson is the picture of stability for Colgate football, having held the head coaching job since 2005. N.C. State’s teams are called the Tar Heels, while UNC’s are the Wolfpack. Miami and UNC have traded ACC football titles for much of the last decade. Dabo Swinney sells real estate in Alabama.

Certainly that’s just scratching the surface of the oddities that await us on Earth-11578 vs. our world. What are your theories on the other facts that may be different?