This season is turning into one to forget for Syracuse football. But the ACC just announced its conference slate for each season until 2030, so Orange fans can now turn their attention to the future for a bit.
Permanent Rivalry Games
The biggest takeaway is for the Syracuse football schedule is that SU has two permanent opponents: Boston College and Pittsburgh. This makes plenty of sense. There’s a regional connection within the northeast, plus the historical rivalry three programs shared within the Big East. In Dino Babers’ press conference this week, he specifically pointed out how important the BC game is to the program every year.
The consistency of those two matchups is also beneficial in terms of schedule difficulty. The Panthers and Eagles haven’t been powerhouses in a long time. While they’ve each had solid years here and there, SU should have two winnable games each season with Boston College and Putt on the schedule.
Avoiding Powerhouses
The top programs in the ACC are usually some combination of Clemson, Florida State, and Miami. Syracuse avoided having to face these opponents about as much as possible. SU has just three matchups apiece with this trio over the next seven seasons. While it’s nice to beat the best, beating those teams is a tall task. Playing against the Tigers, Seminoles, and Hurricane has little as possible makes getting to bowls more realistic.
Matchups With Newcomers
Syracuse has three games each against Stanford and Cal, as well as four games against SMU. The disparity makes some sense. The California duo is a long road trip no matter what, while Texas is a bit closer. The most surprising thing here is how much more often the Orange will play the Mustangs compared to longer-tenured ACC foes. SU will play against SMU more than Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest. That’s an interesting move by the conference.
The Hardest Year
In 2025, there’s a lot of challenges on the Syracuse football schedule. Its road schedule includes Clemson, Georgia Tech, Miami, and SMU. Plus, an away game at Notre Dame and a neutral site matchup with Tennessee in Atlanta were already on the docket. That is an extremely difficult road slate, and depending on the state of the program at the time, it could be hard for SU to find even one win.
A Caveat
All of this is meaningless if conference realignment continues to shake things up over the years. Seven seasons is forever in the world of college football. Who knows what the ACC looks like in 2030, or if it even exists at all?
