Syracuse Football: Orange soaring on up in national, ACC power rankings

As Syracuse football prepares to host fellow Atlantic Coast Conference squad Virginia this Friday evening on the Hill, the Orange is starting to garner more and more praise from national and ACC experts.

It’s absolutely true that the Orange is 3-0, which is awesome. It’s also true that the ‘Cuse still has nine games to go in the 2022 regular season, including a brutal stretch in the near future.

So while things are looking good at this juncture for Syracuse football in the current term, I know that a lot of my fellow Orange fans are saying to take it one game at a time and not get too far ahead of myself in cheerleading for the ‘Cuse. I get it.

Still, for a Syracuse football team that was projected by many pundits to finish near or in the basement of its ACC division in 2022, I am pretty jazzed up that the Orange has commenced this campaign with three victories in a row over Louisville, UConn and Purdue.

Syracuse football is climbing in national and ACC power ratings.

Starting with the ACC, after narrowly escaping Purdue this past Saturday afternoon in Central New York, the Orange checks in at No. 5 within the conference, according to the latest rankings from ESPN and ACC Network analyst Eric Mac Lain.

He’s got Clemson at No. 1, followed by N.C. State, Pittsburgh, Florida State and then the ‘Cuse at No. 5. Virginia, by the way, is No. 12 at this point, per Mac Lain.

It’s worth noting that after Syracuse football hosts both UVA and Wagner, its next five battles are against N.C. State, Clemson, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and Florida State. That’s brutal.

Turning to the national stage, in the most recent Associated Press top-25 poll, the ‘Cuse is receiving seven votes, while the Orange has landed 24 votes in the Coaches top-25 poll.

CBS Sports, following the thrilling triumph versus the Boilermakers, moved up Syracuse football 15 spots to No. 36 across the country in that media outlet’s latest national power rankings.

Virginia, which upped its record to 2-1 so far in 2022 after squeaking by Old Dominion at home over the weekend, is No. 69 overall, per CBS Sports.

I acknowledge that we’ve got a long way to go in the 2022 stanza, but Syracuse football has a really excellent opportunity to get to 5-0 before it faces a daunting stretch later this season.