Syracuse Football: Odds, Chances and Predictions Versus Pitt

Syracuse Football has been rolling through its first five games and now is favored in a lot of games going forward. Are the Orange favored going into this weeks matchup though? What does the media have to say? We bring you the latest predictions and opinions on the game this Saturday.

The Syracuse Football team is off to a blistering 4-1 start. The only loss, a win stolen by Clemson is the last 40 seconds of the game. Pittsburgh, this week’s opponent, comes in at 2-3, according to ESPN.com looking lost and a little out of rhythm on both sides of the ball.

In previous years, this game was a toss up, but considering the start that both these teams have had, there actually is a clear favorite this year going in: Syracuse. Yeah, you heard me right: the Orange will be the favorite on the road in ACC play. Surprising? Maybe. Expected after the start the Orange have had? Oh yeah.

The question I had this week though was how much is Syracuse really favored to win by this week? Well, it depends where you look, but its not by as big of a margin as I would have thought.

According to ESPN.com, Syracuse had 75.6% odds to Pittsburgh’s 24.4% as of Friday morning. They also had a projected a betting line of Syracuse to win by a margin of only 3.5 points.

Considering how well the Orange have played and how bad Pitt has looked thus far, Orange Fans may wonder why the difference is only about a field goal. Well, that is actually an easy question if you look at the history of this matchup and Syracuse Football’s past.

Syracuse hasn’t won at Pittsburgh since 2001. To give you an idea Paul Pasqualoni was still coach. Incidentally that was also the last season in which Syracuse Football was ranked. That feels like ages ago, and it was. To give you an idea, George W. Bush was just beginning his first term, Smallville and Scrubs were just beginning and American Idol hadn’t even come out yet, according to IMDB. Yeah, I’m feeling real old now…

I mean take a look at this video below. This is the year before: the 2000 season game against Pitt. The Orange were still in those great classic Syracuse uni’s that I still wish the Orange would go back to. That’s how long ago that game was and shows how long it took the Orange to get back to playing great football again and getting ranked.

Other thinks that may have played a factor in our odds this week is that Syracuse Football doesn’t have a great track record. The Orange have gone 2-8 on the road in its last 10 road games in general. What may sting more though is that the Orange have gone only 1-9 in its last ten ACC road games, with the Orange’s only conference road win coming against a 3-3 Boston College team in mid-2016.

If it makes you feel any better, Syracuse is 1-1 on the road in general this year and is only in a 0-1 hole (a close loss to a Top 10 Clemson squad last week) this year in ACC play. That record can easily swing the other direction if the Orange play like we’ve seen them play all year long, albeit at home.

Other than ESPN, CollegeFootballNews.com has the Orange winning 27-20, and Athlon Sports has Syracuse winning 24-23, Best of all, all five hometown panelists at Syracuse.com have the Orange predicted to win at Pittsburgh on Saturday. Not to mention our Inside the Loud House panel likes the Orange’s chances this weekend too.

In case you’re still feeling shaky, just remember the Orange won last year against Pitt. Heck, we almost even pulled out a win on the road at Pitt two years ago in a shootout. So we should at least take comfort knowing that this is a beatable team and Syracuse has a good chance in this game and going forward.

So with all this history against the Orange and all the present going our way who’s to say what will really happen on Saturday on the road. If Syracuse plays the way we know they can though, I like our chances and it should be a a Syracuse victory. If not, yikes…. Enough said.