Syracuse Basketball: ACC expansion, Orange future opponents revealed

The ACC is expanding its’ conference schedule starting next season. Here’s who the Syracuse basketball team will be playing over the next three years.

Starting in the 2019-20 season, the ACC conference schedule will be expanding from 18 games to 20 games. The 20 game change will take place over the next three years.

So what does that mean for the Syracuse basketball squad?

"According to the press release, “each team will play its two primary rivals every season both home and away (four games) and four repeat opponents both home and away (eight games). The remaining eight opponents will be single games — four at home and four on the road.  The full cycle of repeat opponents will be complete following the third year.”"

Since Syracuse joined the ACC back in the 2013-14 season, they’ve only been above .500 in conference twice (2013-14: 14-4 and in 2016-17: 10-8). Currently, the Orange are 8-4 with six games left on the slate.

But what’s going to be on the slate over the next three years for the Orange? Here are the details via the official press release:

2019-20

"Rivals Home and Away: Boston College, PittsburghRepeats Home and Away: Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, Virginia and Virginia TechHome Only: Duke, North Carolina, NC State and Wake ForestRoad Only: Clemson, Florida State, Louisville and Miami"

2020-21

"Rivals Home and Away: Boston College, PittsburghRepeats Home and Away: Clemson, Louisville, North Carolina and NC StateHome Only: Florida State, Miami, Notre Dame and Virginia TechRoad Only: Duke, Georgia Tech, Virginia and Wake Forest"

2021-22

"Rivals Home and Away: Boston College, PittsburghRepeats Home and Away: Duke, Florida State, Miami and Wake ForestHome Only: Clemson, Georgia Tech, Louisville and VirginiaRoad Only: North Carolina, NC State, Notre Dame and Virginia Tech"

Overall the move over to the ACC has been very good for the Orange. Of course, the executives would agree from all the new money that is flowing into the University, but I’m talking about the actual basketball.

The ACC has consistently been among the top conferences in all of college basketball. There’s no greater example than this season. Not only does the conference have a slew of top-25 teams featured, but even the bottom tier teams have notched quality wins across the college basketball landscape.

There is no easy game in the ACC and that’s good for the conference and especially good for Syracuse. When you look at some conferences, teams only have a handful of opportunities to put skins on the wall to pad the tournament resume in any given year.

While the Orange will have four top-25 chances in their last six games to get more quality wins this season. Some may complain about the difficulty, I’ll always cherish the numerous opportunities for Syracuse to prove itself against the very best of the best.