Top Competition by the Decade

The Syracuse Orange have played the Colgate Raiders 172 times, by far the most games against any other school. The series stopped being competitive in the late sixties, though I imagine some fans would be surprised to know it was still a competitive series in the Dave Bing/Jim Boeheim era. The two teams played a triple overtime game in 1965, that the Orange eventually won 93-90 behind Bing's 45 points. That was probably the end of the competitive era for the two teams; there have been the occasional close game since then, but overall, nothing too noteworthy. Colgate and Syracuse used to be the biggest rivalry on the schedule, and for the first thirty years or so, the game was often one of the last games on the schedule in order to close the season out with a big game. 

Cornell is next on the list with 125 games, and Pittsburgh is third with 118. Given that Syracuse typically plays Pitt twice a year, we can expect Pitt to overtake Cornell within 7 seasons, if not sooner. 

The top teams that Syracuse has played each decade has changed over the years. Syracuse was not in a conference until the 1979-1980 season, so prior to that their games were against a lot of Eastern schools, but no set schedule. Since 1979-1980, the Big East dictated a good portion of their schedule, and subsequently the ACC has since the Orange changed conferences. 

 I've put a list together of the top 5 teams the Orange played each decade, and you can see those results if you look at the decade information. 

 Here is the leader for each decade:

There are probably no big surprises on that list.  The 27 games against Georgetown in the eighties helps to explain the rivalry a lot. They played nineteen games during the regular season, and eight more in that decade in the Big East Tournament. When two teams meet routinely in a post season tournament, there are going to be a lot of 'big games' in your history.