Syracuse, N.Y. — Some quick takes on the Syracuse fans still staying home and if we missed out on a visit from ESPN’s College GameDay as soon as I congratulate the Miami Dolphins for beating the Buffalo Bills practice squad.
Home is where the fans are
I spent a good part of my Saturday on Twitter (I really need to get out more) defending Syracuse fans who haven’t made their way back to the JMA Wireless Dome to take in an SU football game.
Friday night’s crowd at the Dome for SU’s 22-20 win over Virginia was a mere 34,590.
Orange diehards are aghast that those missing to fill in the empty seats haven’t returned in droves with Syracuse off to a 4-0 start (and about to be 5-0 with a presumed win over Wagner coming).
I would implore them to have patience.
It’s going to take more than a few wins to get the casual fans back in the building.
While passionate fans make good points about empty seats hurting recruiting, the affordability of the product and the turnaround of the team, they also have short memories.
The casual fans (a fairweather 10,000 or so) that aren’t alums and don’t live and die by what the Orange do game-by-game have been drawn in before only to be burned by a lot of bad football around here the last 20 years or so.
Talking them out of leaving the creature comforts of home for the Dome is harder these days.
Social media also makes it easier to keep up with the game while shuttling kids to their own games and events or whatever may be keeping them away from the Dome.
I think the season-tickets holders get anxiety when they see a good Syracuse team and not enough butts in seats besides them to watch it because they know how quickly that can change.
God bless those Orange fans that make a day of it every time SU straps on the pads. The fans that have shown up this season have been electric despite the low numbers.
Years of debating this topic on radio and in this column for years have developed the same pattern: Get the right fans in the building and the rest will follow.
GameDay a goner?
Syracuse’s re-entry into the USA Today coaches poll and the inevitable return to the AP poll (should it keep winning) is the rubber stamp of validation it needs on the national level.
But the crown jewel of college football publicity looks like it has slipped out of Syracuse’s hands again.
ESPN’s College GameDay has never planted its traveling circus on the campus of Syracuse University for a football game.
Fans were eyeing SU’s matchup with N.C. State on Oct. 15 as a possible end to GameDay’s absence if both teams remained undefeated.
That went up in smoke when the Worldwide Leader chose the juicy Clemson-N.C. State matchup this week as its next stop.
ESPN is highly unlikely to feature N.C. State twice in such a short period of time, even if it beats Clemson, as it likes to sprinkle variety on the GameDay circuit.
Syracuse was already facing an uphill battle for the GameDay crew to get its first bite of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que that week as the slate also features Penn State at Michigan and USC at Utah.
Are there any other games on the Syracuse schedule that could entice ESPN to finally come here?
The only other candidate I could spot was when Florida State visits on Nov. 12. Are both the Orange and Seminoles going to be undefeated or even one-loss teams then? That could be a big ask.
Some would think the Syracuse-Notre Dame game on Oct. 29 is a candidate, but that game doesn’t have enough juice left with the Irish taking on two losses already.
Syracuse has been the featured opponent on College GameDay twice in its history.
Neither experience went very well.
Syracuse was smacked by Virginia Tech 62-0 on Oct. 16, 1999 and 59-0 by No. 1 Miami on Nov. 17, 2001.
Syracuse has had two close call for a GameDay visit in the last four years.
There was buzz the show would feature Syracuse vs. Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium in 2018, but ESPN went to a Cincinnati-Central Florida matchup instead.
In 2019, Syracuse vs. Clemson was all but locked in for a GameDay visit, but a blowout loss to Maryland the week before that game killed the idea.
Syracuse is one of just eight Power-Five conference schools waiting for their first visit from GameDay, along with Cal, Duke, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Rutgers, and Virginia.
We’ll all just have to wait longer to see Lee Corso get into the Otto costume to make his celebrated pick for the game.
Contact Brent Axe: Email | Twitter
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