Syracuse Football: The ideal schedule with an 11-game docket for Orange

ACC leaders are considering an 11-battle slate for Syracuse football and its conference peers, and we’ve naturally selected the perfect calendar.

Syracuse football and its Atlantic Coast Conference counterparts are expected to hear from league officials by the end of this month as to what the 2020 campaign will look like, in football and other fall sports.

As it relates to football, the ACC brass is reportedly considering a range of options, and one model that officials are apparently weighing would entail 11 games – 10 conference contests and then one non-conference encounter for each league school.

Under this scenario, media reports indicate that Notre Dame, a long-time independent in football, may join the ACC just for the 2020 stanza as a “quasi-league member,” per CBS Sports.

So should the conference move ahead with this alternative, we’ve of course come up with the most gloriously constructed 11-duel docket for Syracuse football. As always, any feedback is gladly welcomed.

First and foremost, the Orange likely would have to suit up versus all of the other teams in its division, which is the Atlantic, unless ACC officials aim for a more geographically focused arrangement.

So, if we’re talking about the Atlantic division, that probably puts on the Syracuse football schedule Clemson, Louisville, Florida State, Wake Forest, N.C. State, Boston College and Notre Dame.

Clemson will significantly contend for a spot in the College Football Playoff and should emerge as the ACC champion. Louisville is supposed to prove quite good in the 2020 campaign.

A lot of ‘Cuse fanatics are not loving the idea of playing the Fighting Irish, but Notre Dame is often a top-10 or top-20 squad, as well as a huge television draw.

This leaves a trio of additional ACC match-ups from which to choose out of the league’s Coastal division groups. To refresh your memory, this division encompasses North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Miami, Pittsburgh, Virginia, Duke and Georgia Tech.

I think Miami is out, given the distance between Florida and Central New York. I’d also nix Duke and Georgia Tech. For me, the three units for Syracuse football to face are North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh.

The Orange has nice old Big East Conference ties to the Hokies and the Panthers, and the Tar Heels are projected to win the Coastal division according to many national and regional pundits.

Okay, so that leaves the non-conference opponent. Georgetown doesn’t play football, right? On a serious note, I’m nominating West Virginia.

The Mountaineers are also a former Big East rival that competes in the Big 12 Conference these days and played the ‘Cuse in the 2018 Camping World Bowl.

The non-conference options, at least among the Power 5 leagues, are somewhat limited, since the Big Ten and Pac-12 Conferences have eliminated non-league tilts. That leaves either the Big 12 or the SEC. The SEC already has multiple rivalry bouts against ACC teams, and West Virginia seems to make sense from a geographic perspective.

So there you have it. These are the 11 squads that Syracuse football should square off with in 2020. Anyone thinking that the Orange can run the table? Yeah, me neither.