Item: Talk about a smart business move for financial survival. In this day and age of separation among the Power Five conferences, Syracuse, and the ACC included, with an Orange record 2017 intake of a $25.3M conference payout to the athletic department; and the Group of Six, Syracuse in its former life as an original member of the Big East’s eventually awkward football/basketball hybrid now the AAC and Big East, with SU earning “just” $11.8M in 2012-13 its last Big East season.
It seems like almost yesterday. July 1, 2013, the day Syracuse joined the then-60 year old ACC, complete with a ringing-of-the-closing-bell ceremony at NASDAQ’s Times Square headquarters attended by commissioner John Swofford, Jim Boeheim, and the newly-minted 15 school mascots among many other dignitaries.
With the Syracuse athletics milestone anniversary coming up on Sunday, we take a look back at some of the numbers and moments that stand out over the last five seasons:
4 = NCAA National Championships (2015 field hockey, 2015 men’s cross country, Justyn Knight 2017-18 cross country/indoor 500M champion).
1 = NCAA Final Four appearance (2016).
8 = NCAA Tournament victories in 11 games.
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1 = ACC Basketball Tournament victory (2018 over Wake Forest).
1 = Bowl Game victory (2013 Texas Bowl over Minnesota).
22 = Football victories in 61 games.
5 = Athletic Directors (Daryl Gross, Pete Sala (interim), Mark Coyle, Dan French (interim), and John Wildhack).
Worst Moments:
Basketball = losing 62-59 in overtime at home in Feb. 2014 as the undefeated (25-0), No. 1 team in the country to lowly Boston College, wearing a hideous, Nike-mandated, combination of orange jerseys and blue pants to boot.
Football = the eight game losing streak, over the final nine games, ending Scott Shafer’s three year run in 2015 with a 4-8 record.
Best Moments:
Basketball = the second half comeback from 16 down to beat No. 1 seed Virginia 68-62 and earn the 2016 Final Four bid.
Football = beating defending national champion and No. 2 ranked Clemson 27-24 under the Friday Night Dome lights in Oct. 2017.
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