Syracuse football gets primetime ESPN kickoffs vs. Pittsburgh, NC State

Wednesday’s news that the Syracuse Orange football team would be hosting the defending national champion Clemson Tigers in primetime on ABC was huge news, and a clear sign the game is the frontrunner to host College Gameday that weekend. However, that’s not the only game time to be confirmed this week.

For those that don’t want to click through to Twitter, Syracuse’s home game against the Pittsburgh Panthers and road date against the N.C. State Wolfpack will both be in primetime on ESPN. Neither game is on a Saturday, so we already knew they were bound for evening kickoff times. The fact that they’ll take center stage on ESPN is new, however.

Coming off a bye the previous week, Syracuse will have a long rest before the 8 p.m. ET game against the Pack down in Raleigh on Thursday, October 10. Then they’ll get another longer break (one extra day) before hosting the Panthers at 7 p.m. ET at the Dome the following Friday, October 18.

Including the 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff vs. Clemson on September 14, those are the only three games we know times/networks for right now. We’ll take some guesses about the rest in a piece tomorrow, but it’s looking pretty likely that quite a few Orange matchups will be very widely available this fall. We’ve come a long way from the nooners on Time Warner Cable Sports/ESPN3 days less than a decade ago.