Item: Prior to ESPN’s Thursday night ACC matchup between Boston College and Virginia Tech, the Lambert Trophy Championship Association, headed by Chairperson AJ Mayowski of NEC Blitz.com, formally announced the revival of the trophy awarded to the “most accomplished” FBS college football team “in the Eastern United States.” We are happy to announce The Juice will take part in the annual voting.

Debuting in 1936 when other regions of the country had already established their own conferences, the Lambert Trophy was a way to highlight the major colleges in a geographic area that stretched from West Virginia to New England.

Syracuse has a great history winning the Lambert Trophy six times, with two unbeaten teams to boot, fourth best among Eastern schools. The ‘Cuse won the trophy with bowl teams under Ben Schwartzwalder (1952, ‘56, ‘59, 1966), Dick MacPherson (1987), and Paul Pasqualoni (1992).

Once the Big East got into the football business in 1991 (a year after Penn State moved to the Big Ten), ending Syracuse’s 100 years plus status as an ‘Eastern Independent,’ the Lambert Trophy began to lose its luster to the results on the field, a mishmash of teams split into different conferences.

In the CFP era of 2024, of course, there is no major Eastern college football conference, with the team’s competing for the Lambert Trophy still scattered among the Power 4 and Group of Five, or having independent status. No matter the levels of competition and travel from coast-to-coast, the results on the field will determine this season’s winner to be crowned the true champion “in the Eastern United States.”

For this year’s ‘Cuse team at 5-1 and heading into a traditional ‘Eastern Independent’ - now ACC - showdown at undefeated Pitt in a week, there could not be a better time especially with an old-school, Northeast-native coach in Fran Brown, to continue to flex its muscles among its longtime geographic recruiting rivals.

(Question for traditionalists: Wouldn’t the following list make for a fantastic future SU football schedule one day?)

The list of schools eligible for the Lambert Trophy:

Army, Boston College, Buffalo, Connecticut, Delaware (2025), Massachusetts, Navy, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, and West Virginia.

----

Chat about this story and all things Syracuse and Syracuse recruiting on our premium message board, Cuse Classified!

Follow us on Twitter @TheJuiceOnline, like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram @SUJuiceOnline and listen to our podcast.

Tips/questions/concerns? E-mail Recruiting Analyst Charles Kang here.

Not a subscriber to The Juice Online? Join today for access to all our premium content and message board community.