A part of the ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 alliance is to stop the bleeding before it happens. With Texas and Oklahoma moving on to the SEC, these three conferences had to be sure there wouldn’t be any more programs on the move, blind-sighting the rest of the nation. But there will also be a scheduling wrinkle to this partnership. How that will look is unknown, but here are the top-three matchups every Syracuse fan should hope to see.
Syracuse vs. Nebraska
The game itself doesn’t have that much vibrato, but true Syracuse fans that go back to the 1980s understand that the Orange’s upset over No. 1 Nebraska in 1984 was one of the greatest wins in program history. So, why not run it back? These two teams have not met since 1984. No Tim Green at defensive tackle. No Todd Norley under center. But there is still plenty of reason to believe that the die-hard Orange fans and the die hard Cornhusker fans would want to see it again.
Syracuse vs. Penn State
It’s time to awake the beast. Penn State is one of the biggest rivals in Syracuse football history. It started in 1922 with a scoreless tie. It caught fire in 1953 during the benches-clearing brawl. The rivalry had great coaches. Syracuse was led by Ben Schwartzwalder. Penn State had the FBS’ winningest coach in Joe Paterno at the helm after the legendary Rip Engle retired. The Orange were at fault for letting the rivalry burn out because they fluttered downwards. If the schedule aligns, it’s on them to bring themselves and the rivalry back.
Syracuse vs. Arizona State
This one is just for fun. A lot of people would like to see this matchup with Tony White‘s fascinating 3-3-5 defense on display against his former team. Syracuse-Arizona State seems like a relatively reasonable expectation for cross-country scheduling though because the bigger programs like USC and Oregon will likely be grabbed by the bigger programs east of the Mississippi River like Clemson and Ohio State.
