College GameDay has been the pinnacle of college football since it started airing in 1993. It visits the best matchups every week, which in turn favors powerhouse programs. Ohio State, for example, has hosted 23 times and appeared 59 times. However, there are six schools that have never hosted the crew: California, Illinois, Maryland, Rutgers, Virginia, and Syracuse.
The Orange did appear on the show twice – both times over 20 years ago. Despite SU’s lack of luck with College GameDay, the College GameDay Podcast actually loves the ‘Cuse.
In the most recent episode of the show, Pete Thamel, an ESPN and College GameDay reporter, picked Syracuse as one of his two sleeper teams in the ACC.
“The case for Syracuse starts with Kyle McCord,” Thamel said. “He’s going to open up the pass game for them.”
Thamel also praised Fran Brown’s recruiting, both in the transfer portal and with freshman. Then, he doled out even larger praise by calling Oronde Gadsden the best tight end in the ACC. However, a lot of Thamel’s argument for Syracuse being a sleeper stemmed from the Orange’s list of opponents.
“You really have to look at the schedule,” Thamel said. “The schedule for Syracuse favors them to win eight games.”
The College GameDay reporter went on to say that the game that should be circled on every ‘Cuse fans calendars doesn’t come until October.
“They could be favored in every game until that @ NC State game on October 12th,” Thamel added. “Those could be two ranked teams. There’s a real scenario where it’s a game that people in June aren’t really talking about, but could be on a pretty good network and could have some eyeballs on it.
If Syracuse ends up winning that game, maybe SU could host College GameDay in November.
