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.

The Era Pre-Big East

The Big East launched its inaugural season in 1979-1980 with Syracuse, Georgetown, St. John's, Connecticut, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John's and Boston College on board. Villanova would join a year later, and Pitt a few years later in 1982.

It may be hard to believe now, but the Orangemen did not have rivalries with all those teams prior to the Big East.  A few, including Georgetown, they had barely played.  I discussed that in detail in an article back in 2018. 

The Orangemen did have some common opponents prior to the Big East.  Penn State was the most common opponent over the previous 11 seasons (1968-69 to 1978-79), with 23 games.  Syracuse won 17 of those, losing just six.  That was by far the most games the Orangemen had against any team over that time span. 

The Orangemen played the following 13 teams ten or more times during that eleven year period:

Team	Wins	Losses	Games
Penn State	17	6	23
Niagara	10	3	13
Colgate	12	0	12
Pittsburgh	7	5	12
West Virginia	7	5	12
Cornell	10	1	11
Canisius	10	1	11
American	9	2	11
St. John's	8	3	11
Temple	7	4	11
Buffalo	10	0	10
LaSalle	8	2	10
Fordham	8	2	10

Only Pittsburgh and St. John's would be in the early years of the Big East; West Virginia would come along in 1995.

Most of these teams the Orangemen have barely played since the Big East began; Cornell and Colgate would be the notable exceptions with frequent play.  

Connecticut, St. Bonaventure and Rutgers just missed that list with nine games each during that time span.  UConn, of course, was in the Big East.  Rutgers was invited to join, but declined.

If the original Big East was built on Syracuse's most common recent opponents, with eight teams, the league would have been:  Syracuse, Penn State, Niagara, Colgate, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, and two of the following:  Cornell, Canisius, American, St. John's, and Temple.

Rivalries Come and Go

Rivalries can be transitory.  We tend to envision them lasting forever, but many are relevant only within a context of time.  Syracuse and Georgetown were a mighty rivalry.  From the 1979-1980 season to 2012-2013, when the original Big East conference disbanded, the two teams had a 36-36 record against each other.  The two teams were in the Big East for 34 seasons, and met each other 14 times in the Big East tournament, splitting the games 7-7.  Syracuse would win 9 regular season titles and 5 Big East tournament titles; Georgetown would win 10 regular season titles and 7 Big East tournament titles. 

The two teams have played three times since Syracuse left the Big East, and they will play a fourth time this coming December.  But the game has lost some luster; it is played in the non-conference schedule and the game has no significance is overall standings. 

It may be hard for fans to realize it, but Colgate used to be the biggest rival for Syracuse in all sports.  The rivalry was fierce; there were instances of brawls on the court and field.  Often the basketball game was the last one of the season to give it the honor to close out the year.  From the early 1900s to probably the mid 1930s, it was the top game.  The series still had competitive games through the 1960s. Today the Orangemen and Raiders have met more times than any other SU opponent, with 170 games.  But the two teams have gone different directions, and other than being a annual game at the Dome early each season, the game has little significance.

Which brings me back to the transitory nature of rivals such as Georgetown.  Big East fans would of course point to the Orangemen and Hoyas as one of the top rivalries in the conference, if not the top. But the two teams were hardly rivals prior to the Big East.  They had played 17 times prior to the conference being formed, and most of those games where from 1937 to 1943.  The last scheduled game was in 1967; they met in 1974 in an early season tournament, and in 1979 in the ECAC playoffs.  The Big East built their rivalry, and frankly with the Big East gone, the rivalry will dissipate.

Surprisingly, the Orangemen did not have a rivalry with most of the original Big East teams prior to the formation of the conference.  Of the original 9 teams in the Big East (*note I count Pitt and Villanova as originals even though they didn’t join the first season), only three were rivals of the Orangemen.

Syracuse had played the Pitt Panthers 44 times from 1914 to 1979, and they played the Panthers basically every year from 1952 to 1979.  The 113 games against Pitt is third all-time on the Syracuse opponent list.  Surprisingly, Pitt isn’t really viewed as a big time rival, despite the long time history and meaningful games they played later in the Big East conference.

 

Syracuse and St. John’s played each other 29 times from 1912 to 1979, and played each year from 1969 to 1979.  In the 50s and 60s St. John’s routinely beat the Orangemen, but the tables were turned in the 70s as the Orangmen routinely beat the Redmen.

Connecticut is the third team from the Big East who was a rival prior to conference play.  It wasn’t an early rival as the two teams did not meet until 1956.  But from 1956 to 1979 they played 21 times, almost every season.  Syracuse led the series 17-4 before conference play.  UConn was not a contender in the early years of the Big East, and so UConn did not get the same prestige to Orange fans as Georgetown, St. John’s or Villanova.  But once Jim Calhoun arrived in 1987, things started to heat up.

As mentioned earlier, the rest of the teams in the Big East were relatively newcomers to the Orangemen.  Georgetown was only 17 games, and very few recent, as previously discussed.

Syracuse and Boston College played 12 times, all between 1959 and 1978.  

The Orangemen only met the Seton Hall Pirates three times, in 1948, 1949 and 1951.  The two squads had not met in 29 years prior to the conference play. 

Syracuse and Villanova only played three times, in 1946, 1966 and 1979, the latter two both being tournaments. 

Syracuse and Providence had played only twice, in 1969 and 1974.

So it is not like Syracuse had big rivalries prior to the Big East for most the schools. The nature of the conference, and the routine playing built those rivalries.

Who were the most common Orangemen foes prior to conference play?  We had already discussed Pitt, UConn and St. Johns, as well as Colgate.

These were the other top teams the Orangemen had played:

Penn State 103 games from 1902 to 1979 (we’ve only played twice since)

Cornell 96 games from 1901 to 1979

Niagara 77 games from 1910 to 1979 (four times since)

Rochester 64 games from 1902 to 1974 (none since)

Canisius 53 games from 1945 to 1979 (seventeen times since)

Penn 46 games from 1902 to 1979 (once since)

Fordham 39 games from 1928 to 1979 (only five times since)

St. Lawrence 34 games from 1901 to 1947 (none since)

Buffalo 29 games, from 1918 to 1979 (four times since)

Army, 30 games from 1912 to 1974 (no games since)

LaSalle 28 games, from 1954 to 1978 (three games since)

Princeton 28 games, from 1905 to 1964 (six games since)

West Virginia 26 games, every year from 1961 to 1979

Temple 26 games, from 1942 to 1979 (four times since)

Manhattan 25 games from 1913 to 1979 (five times since)

Holy Cross 23 games, from 1949 to 1973 (four times since)

Dartmouth 22 games, from 1904 to 1956 (none since)

NYU 21 games, from 1910 to 1964 (none since)

Rutgers 20 games, every year from 1971 to 1979

Some of these teams dropped off the schedule as they de-emphasized basketball, or moved to a different level.  Others simply became a logistics problem once the Big East conference began. 

If Syracuse were to have joined a Basketball-Only conference in 1979-1980 that was composed of our top ‘rivals’ at that time, and keeping a marketing perspective in mind, thus avoiding smaller schools in small cities and nearby proximity to Syracuse, the basketball conference probably would have looked like this:

Syracuse

Pitt

UConn

West Virginia

Penn State

Temple

Rutgers

St. Johns

Obviously the Big East conference built the rivalries we now know.  But rivals come and go.  The ACC currently has some very long-standing rivalries; as it should, it is a well established conference and many of the incumbent teams have long histories with each other. It will take quite a while for the Orangemen to be a true rival with those schools, though I think Virginia may start getting a feeling of a rivalry based on recent games.

Syracuse Opponents They Have A Losing Record Against

Syracuse has played 288 different teams in the history of the program.  They have a winning record against 235 of those teams, and a split record against 24.  There are only 29 teams that the Orange have a lifetime losing record against.  Five of those teams are non-collegiate programs that they will never play again:  Schenectady Company “E” (0-2), Crescent Athletic Club (1-2), St. John’s Military Academy (1-2), East Liverpool Athletic Club (0-1) and Williston Seminary (0-1).

That leaves 25 collegiate basketball programs that have winning records against the Orange. 16 of those teams have a one game margin over the Orange. Those include:

•     Virginia (5-6)
•      Maryland (4-5)
•      Clemson (3-4)
•      Oklahoma State (2-3)
•      Wisconsin (2-3)
•      Eastern Kentucky (1-2)
•      Illinois (1-2)
•      Iowa (1-2)
•      Austin Peay (0-1)
•      Baldwin-Wallace (0-1)
•      Cleveland State (0-1)
•      Denison (0-1)
•      Mississippi (0-1)
•      Oral Roberts (0-1)
•      Tulsa (0-1)

Virginia and Clemson are current ACC conference foes, so the one game margin there will be up for play for the foreseeable future.

There are nine teams that have a two game or greater margin against he Orange. They are:

Bradley (1-3): The Braves are in the Missouri Valley Conference. The Orange have played them four times, always on a neutral court or in a tournament.  The two teams last met in 1982 when Bradley beat the Orangemen in the NIT.

Duke (5-7):  The Blue Devils are now a familiar foe in the ACC, and the Orange will see them at least once every year.  The Orange are 3-4 against Duke in ACC play, and last lost to them in the NCAA Sweet Sixteen last year.

Ohio State (2-5): The Buckeyes are part of the Big 10.  The Orange have played OSU twice in the NCAA tournament, both times with painful losses, twice on neutral courts, twice at OSU and once at home.  The Orange last played the Buckeyes in the 2012 Elite Eight with the Buckeyes winning 77-70.

City College of New York (5-8): The Beavers were a powerhouse NCAA program in the 1940s.  They were caught in a point shaving scandal in 1950-1951, and that destroyed the program. They dropped down to Division III and have remained there ever since.  Former Orangeman Tom Green is currently the head coach of the Beavers.  Syracuse last played CCNY in 1950, and that is unlikely to change.

New York University (9-12):  The Violets are now Division III and part of the UAA conference.  The Orange and Violets met frequently from 1940 to 1964.  The last time they met was in 1964, with NYU beating SU in the NIT tournament, despite Dave Bing’s 31 points. 

Kentucky (3-8):  The Wildcats are in the SEC, and are one of the blue bloods of college basketball. The Orange have met them sporadically over history, facing many of their famous coaches: Adolph Rupp, Joe B. Hall, Eddie Sutton, Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith.  The two teams met in the 1996 NCAA Championship game with the Wildcats winning 76-67.  They last met in 2000 with the Orange beating the Wildcats in the 2^nd round 52-50.

North Carolina (4-11):  The Tar Heels are now a conference rival in the ACC.  Despite the legendary status of the program, the Orange held their own and were 4-4 over the first eight games against the Tar Heels.  The Orangemen upset NC in the 1975 NCAA tournament and again in the 1987 NCAA tournament, both times advancing to the Final Four.  The two teams met in the Final Four in 2016, and North Carolina beat the underdog Orange.  The Tar Heels have won the last seven games in the series.

Louisville (9-18):  Louisville is now a conference rival in the ACC, and a former rival in the Big East.  Louisville has a winning record over the Orange, and has the distinction of the widest margin (9 games), and the most games giving the Orange a losing record (27 games played).  The Orange have won 6 of the past 11 games, so they are on an upswing.