Syracuse Football: Orange gets prime-time NBC game at Big Ten’s Purdue

Last season, Syracuse football played Purdue in the JMA Wireless Dome and won 32-29 with seven seconds left in what might have been arguably one of the craziest 4th quarters of football in Orange program history.

This upcoming season, Syracuse football will head to Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Ind., to face the Boilermakers on their field and it looks like it’ll get a prime-time spot on network TV.

National college football insider Brett McMurphy of Action Network has reported via Twitter on several Big Ten Conference games scheduled for Saturday nights in September on NBC. And as it turns out, the Orange at Purdue is one of those contests, to air at 7:30 pm on Saturday, September 16.

This will be the third game of the Syracuse football 2023 season, following home games against Colgate and Western Michigan, with Army and Clemson left in September as well (Purdue is the only road game in September this year).

Syracuse football will play at Purdue in an NBC prime-time game.

So coming off an epic finale last season between the two teams and Syracuse football starting last season at 6-0, it’s nice to see that this game is appealing to network executives. Both teams were bowl teams last season as well.

Hopefully both teams start off well and it’s not flexed to Peacock for Penn State versus Illinois or something. There were not a lot of details released so that might not even be an option but I love this.

Getting essentially an East Coast prime-time spot on a network like NBC is definitely a boost for the program and its recruiting. And don’t forget that in 2025, Syracuse football will get Tennessee to start the season in Atlanta on ESPN as well.

I fully expect this will be a competitive game especially with Purdue quarterback Aidan O’Connell in the NFL. O’Connell led Purdue last season against Syracuse football with 424 yards passing and three touchdowns, two in the fourth quarter alone.

If not for a couple of unsportsmanlike penalties and an impressive drive by the Orange offense, Purdue would have won but Garrett Shrader to Oronde Gadsden II won it with seven seconds left and the Orange fans left happy.

Could we see a similar performance from both teams on September 16 on NBC? If so, could we see more games getting better time slots on television channels with access to bigger audiences?

With any luck, a Syracuse football win on NBC and finishing September 4-1, or better yet 5-0, will lead to more opportunities like this later in the season. As of now, the schedule includes Virginia Tech on a Thursday night in October and a Friday game against Boston College in November plus Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Florida State, Wake Forest and Pittsburgh left on the schedule.

One other cool thing to note here. This past February, NBC Sports announced that its Big Ten Saturday-night college football announcing team will be Syracuse University alumni Noah Eagle on play-by-play, along with veteran analyst Todd Blackledge and sideline reporter Kathryn Tappen.