Syracuse Football: A classic game of would you rather?

Syracuse football is almost here, the season opener is this Friday night in the Carrier Dome against Colgate. But ahead of that game, lets play a classic game of would you rather?

The Syracuse football season is almost here for Cuse fans, it all starts this Friday night against Colgate. But before we get there, we should break down exactly what we want to see happen this season.

Or more so, let’s clarify among the fan base what we would rather like to see this season. We put up a Twitter poll to gauge the pulse of the fan base ahead of the season and received some surprising results.

We posed the goal for Syracuse earlier this week when we said the primary goal was “to get to six”. Which would make the Syracuse football team bowl eligible and at the end of the day everyone wants to get to bowl games.

Or do they? It looks good on the report card to get bowl games, but perhaps something else could have a bigger impact.

In particular a momentous upset victory could last for decades, just look at 1984 with the win over the No. 1 Nebraska Cornhuskers. For Syracuse, that is the biggest victory for this program since their ’59 Cotton Bowl victory over Texas for their lone national championship.

It’s one thing to beat the opponents you’re supposed to beat and go to a bowl game 6-6. But beating a national title contender on the road potentially (ie at Clemson or at Florida State), could push the program forward 10 fold.

Looking at the football schedule, those two aforementioned games are really the only ones that rise to that level. Louisville is a top-25 team, but it would be early in the season.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish, another game that would be on the national stage at MetLife stadium. With all the controversy surrounding the Irish, it wouldn’t be as big of a victory as their ACC rivals.

The other side of the argument that fans have argued is when you get to bowl games, you gain national recognition. Beyond being relevant, you get additional practice time and another national stage.

Which for a program that hasn’t been able to get to bowl games recently would be a huge plus. On top of the “Dino Babers-effect”, getting more precious practice time to perfect his offense.

This side of the argument makes sense because getting a bowl game would insure you’d get an additional month of practice time. Is that worth more than a potential blockbuster upset?

Regardless it’s an interesting argument because the rhetoric seems to be get back to a bowl game, whatever it takes. But how much will getting to the Pinstripe Bowl really mean for this team?

It’s going to take a while for coach Babers to get this team back on the map. He said it’ll take time to install his offense and he seems willing to push the envelope.

There’s a huge difference between playing not to lose and playing to win, Babers’ brings a winning attitude. While fans cumulatively want to see this team compete against the upper echelon of the conference.

It would be even sweeter for the Orange to pull the upset of the century, something they nearly did twice last season. It would help with recruiting, it would help with team camaraderie, and perhaps most importantly it’ll help sell Babers’ message.