During its “ACC Rivalries” segment of ACC This Morning on XM Satellite Radio this past Friday, Mark Packer and Wes Durham discussed out of Boston College, Syracuse and Pittsburgh, who has managed the expansion process the best in the form of creating a natural rival?
Mr. Durham commented that he has called Syracuse’s football games with both Boston College and Syracuse and concluded both games “had some thump to them.” I concur with him.
Mr. Packer added that Syracuse fans to this day still miss the Big East rivalries. To hear that comment near the conclusion of the Orange’s fifth year in the conference frustrates me.
Mr. Packer isn’t wrong in his statement, as I have friends who are S.U. fans and they do miss the – what they call – “old Big East.” Yes, in its time it was a great basketball league – rivalry games amongst Syracuse, Georgetown, St. John’s, Villanova, Pittsburgh, Connecticut, West Virginia, Notre Dame and Louisville. Sold out Big East Tournaments in Madison Square Garden, including the six-overtime game between Syracuse and Connecticut, and great coaching matchups. But that Big East no longer exists. Neither does Big East football for that matter. The Big East dropped football and has reverted back to being the conference that didn’t play that sport when it formed in the 1979-1980 season. Longing for something that used to be hinders in fully supporting this athletic program in a conference that’s the best for Syracuse to be in. That conference is the ACC, which happens to be the best conference in the country.
Conference realignment was about football, not basketball. Football drives the Power 5 conference bus. I understand and totally get that. And basketball is my first love.
As a Syracuse native, I became a Syracuse fan in 1975 as a fifth-grader when SU went to its first Final Four (upsetting a Mitch Kupchak and Phil Ford led North Carolina team in the Sweet 16). Syracuse wasn’t in a conference then as they were under the umbrella of the ECAC (Eastern College Athletic Conference) as an independent for all of their sports. Pittsburgh and Boston College were independent then as well. Since the 1970s Syracuse has played the Panthers consistently in football and basketball.
That’s why I think Wes Durham is on to something when he says these games with Syracuse, Boston College, and Pittsburgh have some “thump” to them. They’re all in the same region of the country pretty much and are considered eastern schools. They’ve played each other for many years and the potential of becoming rivals is a great possibility I think.
Also, although the history between Syracuse and NC State isn’t a long one in football, might I add there may have been ‘seeds of discontent’ planted to start a rivalry. I’ve taken two road trips to see Syracuse play at NC State, 2013 and 2017. Syracuse won in 2013, lost in 2017. I didn’t make the trip in 2015 but I remember that game in Raleigh being hotly contested with a good number of “unsportsmanlike conduct” calls. There were some penalties called in the 2017 game as well. I guess we’ll see on that one. The basketball games between the two schools have been very competitive too.
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