Don't bank on College GameDay heading to the Hill for a Syracuse football 2025 game

After the season that Syracuse football had in 2024, the buzz on the Hill for head coach Fran Brown's program is palpable. In fewer than two months, the Orange's 2025 campaign will commence, with the 'Cuse set to face Tennessee, which will likely reside in preseason top-25 polls, in late August in Atlanta.

With that buzz in Central New York, the ongoing conversation about when Syracuse football will finally get to host ESPN's popular show, College GameDay, seems even more heightened, in my humble opinion.

A recent post on X from the account College Football Report on this topic got me and other 'Cuse fans wondering if 2025 could be the year that GameDay heads to the Hill. The consensus, at least for the time being, appears to be that GameDay isn't likely to come to the JMA Wireless Dome in the upcoming campaign.

Here's why.

Syracuse football is one of several high-major programs to have never hosted College GameDay.

The biggest issue for the Orange, in 2025, is that even if the team piles up a lot of triumphs, its home docket this coming season isn't super appealing, from a marketing perspective.

Coming to the JMA Wireless Dome during the 2025 stanza are UConn, Colgate, Duke, Pittsburgh, North Carolina and Boston College. The 'Cuse has one neutral-site game, versus Tennessee in Atlanta, to commence the season.

Then, Syracuse football will travel to Clemson, SMU, Georgia Tech, Miami and Notre Dame. Yikes. So on paper, the bevy of the Orange's marquee games are on the road and against the Volunteers.

However, this is all based on preseason chatter and prognostications about which teams will be in the upper tier of the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2025. Thus, if some of the Orange's ACC foes at home surprise the experts and are playing well when they come to the Dome, then perhaps the 'Cuse has a shot to host GameDay.

The two home tilts that I'm eyeing are September 27 versus Duke and October 18 against long-time rival Pittsburgh. Still, Syracuse football would probably need to spring an upset on the road before either of these home dates to get into the major top-25 polls.

NFL coaching legend Bill Belichick, now the head coach at North Carolina, would make for a fun GameDay visit when the Tar Heels go toe to toe with the Orange on Halloween. Unfortunately, though, that game is on a Friday night, not a Saturday.

Oh well. There's always 2026. By the way, much love to Lee Corso.