As we’ve documented a couple of times lately, if Syracuse football wants to reach a bowl game in 2022, it will have to navigate a potentially brutal upcoming schedule this fall.
Phil Steele, for one, recently projected that the Orange’s 2022 docket is No. 12 nationally as it pertains to the most-challenging schedules across the country.
On Monday, the pre-season top-25 Coaches poll was released, and I’m counting eight squads on the ‘Cuse 2022 calendar that are either ranked or receiving votes at this juncture.
That leaves four Syracuse football foes that aren’t nationally ranked or receiving votes ahead of the 2022 stanza, and they are UConn, Virginia, Wagner and Boston College.
Let’s see where Syracuse football opponents are placed in the pre-season Coaches poll.
Here is the Orange’s 2022 schedule. I included foes’ records from 2021, and whether they are ranked or receiving votes in the pre-season top-25 Coaches poll.
September 3 vs. Louisville (6-7 last year)
Receiving votes (1)
September 10 at UConn (1-11 last year)
Not ranked or receiving votes
September 17 vs. Purdue (9-4 last year)
Receiving votes (2)
September 23 vs. Virginia (6-6 last year)
Not ranked or receiving votes
October 1 vs. Wagner (0-11 last year)
Not ranked or receiving votes
October 15 vs. N.C. State (9-3 last year)
Ranked No. 13
October 22 at Clemson (10-3 last year)
Ranked No. 4
October 29 vs. Notre Dame (11-2 last year)
Ranked No. 5
November 5 at Pittsburgh (11-3 last year)
Ranked No. 16
November 12 vs. Florida State (5-7 last year)
Receiving votes (1)
November 19 at Wake Forest (11-3 last year)
Ranked No. 19
November 26 at Boston College (6-6 last year)
Not ranked or receiving votes
So if my math is correct, there are five opponents in the pre-season top 25, along with three foes that are receiving votes.
In total, the Atlantic Coast Conference has five ranked groups. Syracuse football will play four of these teams. The ‘Cuse will not face Miami, which checks in at No. 17 in this pre-season poll.
Obviously, the top-25 polls will fluctuate from week to week, but as it presently stands, from October 15 until November 5, the Orange will play four ranked squads in a row (two home games and two away from the Hill).
Two of them are currently in the top five (Clemson and Notre Dame), while the other two are in the top 16 (N.C. State and Pittsburgh). Yikes.