It would be disingenuous to say this is anything but a favorable schedule for Syracuse. Most of the traditional ACC powers are nowhere to be seen on that slate, as is the strongest new conference member, SMU.
The nonconference schedule is very manageable with three of the four games coming at home along with the road trip to UNLV. The Rebels, who picked up five points in the preseason coaches’ poll after hanging a 9-5 record last season and losing the Mountain West conference title game, finished second in this season’s Mountain West preseason poll. Not only will the Orange have to deal with travel to Las Vegas, but they also do it on a short week with television bumping the game to a Friday night kickoff. One factor in SU’s favor, though, is UNLV has to replace quarterback Jayden Maiava, who transferred to USC in the offseason.
Only four ACC teams made the preseason coaches’ top 25 poll, with Florida State coming in at #10, Clemson standing at #14, Miami being voted #19, and North Carolina State landing at #22. Louisville just missed the top 25 by two spots with Virginia Tech and SMU right behind them. North Carolina picked up six points while the Orange garnered a single marker.
The most notable thing about that aforementioned list of eight conference foes is that five of them do not appear on SU’s slate. Of the three teams on that list who will lock horns with Syracuse, two come to the JMA Wireless Dome.
The ACC preseason media poll does not mirror the national poll results, as the Orange landed at 12th in the conference in that survey. That put SU in a cluster of four teams who picked up between 1095 and 1016 points that comprises the 10th through 13th spots on the list. California was the top of the group, then Duke, Syracuse, and Pittsburgh.
Of their eight ACC games, three come against the five teams who finished behind the Orange in that poll – Pitt, Boston College, and Stanford. Both teams in the contests with Pitt and Stanford will be coming off bye weeks prior to their games, while Boston College will have a week off before their trip to SU. California, who finished not far in front of Syracuse in that ACC poll, makes it half the conference slate among foes who are predicted to end the season in the bottom half of the standings.
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