Playing the Syracuse schedule game for 2026 and beyond

Changes from the ACC and some comments from Athletic Director Wildhack have changed the outlook for the Orange moving forward

Ahh football scheduling. The sexiest of topics to discuss. Unlike college basketball or any other professional league, college football schedules games years in advance due to TV rights holders, travel arrangements, and a general sense of stability coaches like to possess. The Syracuse Orange have not been the best at proactively scheduling games, but to their grace, the last few years have been a bit turbulent in the college sports world.

Over the last few months, there have been massive discussions about scheduling changes by the ACC and by college football administrators around “what changes will be coming to schedules in the playoff era,” and at today’s season kickoff press conference, Syracuse Athletic Director John Wildhack spoke about these new philosophical changes coming to the Orange football program.

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So let’s have some fun: which B1G team is Wildhack talking about? Here are the confirmed future opponents for the Syracuse Orange according to their own website, with non conference opponents italicized:

• 2026 (12 Games) - New Hampshire, Toledo, at UConn, Notre Dame, Clemson, SMU, Louisville, Cal, at Boston College, at Pitt, at North Carolina, at Virginia

• 2027 (10 Games) - at Penn State, at UConn, Boston College, Pitt, NC State, Florida State, at Georgia Tech, at Stanford, at Louisville, at Virginia Tech

• 2028 (9 Games) - Penn State, Louisville, Miami, Wake Forest, Virginia, at Boston College, at Pitt, at Clemson, at Duke

• 2029 (11 Games) - at Toledo, Notre Dame, Morgan State, Boston College, Pitt, SMU, Virginia Tech, at Cal, at Louisville, at Florida State, at Virginia

• 2030 (8 Games) - Florida State, Stanford, Louisville, Georgia Tech, at Boston College, at Pitt, at Wake Forest, at SMU

I’ve stopped at 2030 because that’s when the current scheduling matrix for the ACC and ‘Cuse ends, but note that most other schools we’re about to talk about are scheduled further out with commitments, so this is an even longer term concern for the Orange.

Additionally, I think it’s important to note that there are conference California trips in 2027 and 2029, meaning that any non-conference addition that season would most likely need to be much closer to home. I also just want to note that I kind of hate having Pitt and BC be lumped into the same road/home rotation. Those should really be split every year, but I’m being greedy.

Anyways, the good news is that the Orange’s 2026 schedule is already set, so we can move on to 2027. That season is missing an FCS opponent (Colgate, Central Connecticut, Stony Brook, Villanova) so the Orange need to fill one non-conference matchup. Even though the Orange already have Penn State on the docket for Sept 4, Illinois, Oregon, Rutgers, USC, and Washington all have openings on their schedule for the Big 10 team Wilhack alluded to earlier.

Since any series would need to be multi-year, we’re probably looking at schools with holes in the following seasons as well that do not conflict with the already scheduled Orange series. In 2028, the Syracuse-Penn State is docketed for September 9, which knocks out Illinois, Oregon, USC, and Washington, leaving only Rutgers.

So as a conversation guess, assuming the Orange don’t do some odd skip-year thing with any of those other schools, my prediction is a four year home-away-home-away split with Rutgers, where I’m sure there’s some attempt to move a game into MetLife or Yankee Stadium. With that, our predicted future Orange schedule now looks like this (Non-Con in italics, predicted in bold: