The Syracuse Orange football program is 9-3 at the end of Fran Brown's first regular season at the helm of the team.
This is Syracuse's fourth winning season since officially beginning competition as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in the 2013-14 campaign. Their overall records since 2013 have been as follows: 7-6 (2013-14), 3-9 (2014-15), 4-8 (2015-16), 4-8 (2016-17), 4-8 (2017-18), 10-3 (2018-19), 5-7 (2019-20), 1-10 (2020-21), 5-7 (2021-22), 7-6 (2022-23), 5-7 (2023-24), and currently 9-3 inside in the 2024-25 season.
With a win in a bowl game, the Orange have an opportunity to match their best record in the last 24 years, which is 10-3, achieved in the 2001-02 season under then-Head Coach Paul Pasqualoni and in the 2018-19 season under then-Head Coach Dino Babers.
So which bowl game will Syracuse be competing in for this 10th win?
Well, the ACC is affiliated with nine bowl games, and has three other bowls as potential alternates.
The nine bowl affiliations for the ACC are: the Duke's Mayo Bowl (Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina), Fenway Bowl (Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts), DIRECTV Holiday Bowl (Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, California), Go Bowling Military Bowl (Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, in Annapolis, Maryland), Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl (Yankees Stadium in Bronx, New York), Pop-Tarts Bowl (Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida), ReliaQuest Bowl (Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida), TaxSlayer Gator Bowl (EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida), and the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl (Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas).
Alternate affiliate options for the ACC can be: the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl (Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida), Birmingham Bowl (Protective Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama), and the SERVPRO First Responder Bowl (Gerald J. Ford Stadium in Dallas, Texas).
With the SMU Mustangs, first in the ACC, and the Clemson Tigers, second in the ACC, facing off for the conference's championship, the next two teams in the ACC standings are the Miami Hurricanes and Syracuse Orange, rounding out the top four of the 17-team conference.
If SMU wins the ACC Championship, I project them as one of the top four seeds, which would grant them a bye in the first round of the new 12-team College Football Playoff. The five highest-ranked conference champions at the end of conference play get automatic bids to the College Football Playoff, and the top four of those five automatic bids receive a bye.
If Clemson wins in the ACC title game, the Tigers could either get the 4-seed or be the fifth and final automatic bid, which could land them just ahead of the winner of the Big 12 Championship, in a seed probably around 11th in the College Football Playoff out of the 12 available spots. Keep in mind this can happen because the fifth highest-ranked conference champion is guaranteed an automatic bid, but not guaranteed a first-round bye or the 5-seed. Clemson has three losses on the season, so a win over SMU could place the ACC champion in that 11th- or 12th-seed and could knock out SMU from the College Football Playoff completely, a decision I do not agree with but can definitely see happening.
Miami is the wild card. The College Football Playoff Committee has liked them visibly in every week of their polls for the 2024-25 season, putting the Hurricanes at fourth in their Week 11 rankings (first College Football Playoff rankings of this season), ninth in Week 12 (keeping them in the top 10 despite losing to the unranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets), eighth in Week 13, and sixth in Week 14, before dropping them from the top 10 in Week 15, after a road loss, 42-38, to the then-unranked Orange.
The College Football Playoff Committee has ranked Miami above SMU in every poll they have done except for the most recent poll, so a win by SMU does not completely rule out Miami.
A win by Clemson leaves the door open for Miami if the committee then chooses to drop SMU below Miami once again. Against common opponent Louisville this season, Miami has a win and Clemson has a loss. The Louisville Cardinals have been in and out of the top 25 this season.
So, for argument's sake, if SMU wins the ACC Championship and the College Football Playoff Committee decides to take Miami for one of the seven at-large spots, Clemson could end up in the Duke's Mayo Bowl, playing in North Carolina versus a Big Ten opponent.
That would open the Orange up to the Pop-Tarts Bowl, ReliaQuest Bowl, Gator Bowl, and the Sun Bowl, with three being played in the Sunshine State and the Sun Bowl being in the Lonestar State.
I do not see Syracuse heading back to the Pinstripe Bowl as they have played there within the last two years.
I also see the magic number 8 for the Orange as a way to get a bowl bid in the south, meaning if they can get to at least eight regular-season wins, they will probably head to warmer weather.
Having nine wins this season passes that magic number, so I do not see Syracuse in the Fenway Bowl in Massachusetts.
Eight wins sent the Orange down south in 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, and 2018.
Being under eight regular-season wins put Syracuse in the Pinstripe Bowl in 2010, 2012, and 2022.
There are some outliners to this hypothesis, but it seems more often than not that the Orange getting to eight regular-season wins aids in getting them down south for a bowl, and over eight wins helps the case even more in their favor.
Syracuse also has a lot of snowbirds that leave the cold north for the warmer climate in Florida during the winter, and when bowls are choosing their teams, having fans in the stands definitely aids in ticket sales.
With that notion, let us take out the Sun Bowl in El Paso.
That leaves the Pop-Tarts Bowl, the ReliaQuest Bowl, and the Gator Bowl.
A match-up in the Pop-Tarts Bowl would place the Orange opposite a Big 12 foe. Who has the same record as Syracuse this season? The Colorado Buffaloes, who ended the regular season also at 9-3. This would place Fran Brown on the opposite sideline of Deion Sanders, someone he has a connection to, as well as does the Orange defensive line coach Nick Williams, who Brown hired to Syracuse after Williams spent last season with Sanders. Keep in mind that Syracuse has history in this bowl game. The last time the Orange were 9-3 going into the postseason, they were selected to play in this bowl, formerly known as the Camping World Bowl. That game, played on December 28, 2018, had over 40,000 tickets sold, and onlookers saw the Orange come down south and get a win over historic adversary, the West Virginia Mountaineers, by a score of 34-18.
The ReliaQuest Bowl would pit the Orange against either a Southeastern Conference (SEC) or Big Ten opponent. If Syracuse was chosen for this bowl to face an SEC team, we could see the Orange versus the Aggies of Texas A&M or the Tigers of LSU, two teams with a regular-season record of 8-4. In the case that a Big Ten team was chosen, Syracuse could face the Illinois Fighting Illini who, like Syracuse, are 9-3 heading into bowl season, and this match-up would give the nation the current 21st-ranked team (Illinois) versus the 22nd-ranked team (Syracuse), according to the most recent College Football Playoff poll.
If the Orange were selected to the Gator Bowl, they would have an SEC opponent, which could still be the Aggies or Tigers, or the Gator Bowl could align with its name and invite the Florida Gators (7-5). The last time Florida played on the field of EverBank Stadium was earlier this season when they faced the Georgia Bulldogs in a game where Gators' quarterback DJ Lagway left in the first half due to injury. A return to the "bank" for Lagway could give north Florida another look at the young quarterback, this time for an entire game, with both sides donning orange and blue.
Whatever the invitation ends up being that Syracuse accepts, I think we can all agree that a season extended is a season worth celebrating.
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