Orange to open at unlikely venue
No. 22 Syracuse visits Liberty as part of 3-year deal
It’s unusual for a top-25 team from a major conference to open the season on the road in a small stadium against an opponent that only recently moved up to college football’s highest classification.
That’s how it is for Syracuse football in 2019. The No. 22 Orange heads to Liberty for Saturday night’s opener at 25,000seat Williams Stadium in Lynchburg, Va.
So, why is the most anticipated Syracuse football season in two decades starting in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the middle of Virginia?
With kickoff Saturday, it’s a good time to address one of the simplest questions about SU’S season opener.
Besides, since the game was scheduled two years ago, in the middle of a stretch of 4-8 seasons, the answer is easy to forget.
And, there’s a few more folks taking stock of what is happening in the Carrier Dome this fall before the start of basketball season. They get a pass.
This year’s game against Liberty is the first in a three-game series scheduled to run from 2019-2021.
Financial terms of the agreement between the two private institutions were not disclosed.
Games in 2020 and 2021 are scheduled to be played in the Carrier Dome.
The Flames have no conference affiliation and had been looking to schedule major-conference opponents to patch together an attractive schedule for a program moving up to the FBS level.
It especially sought out a major-conference opponent to kick off the 2019 season, the first year Liberty would eligible to compete in postseason bowl games.
Syracuse stepped forward as an amenable dance partner. It wanted competitive balance in its nonconference schedule to offset a challenging ACC Atlantic Division slate featuring teams such as Clemson and Florida State.
SU’S athletic administration, after consulting with coach Dino Babers, jumped at the opportunity to schedule a series with Liberty.
“I think with Liberty and them moving up, there was an opportunity for us to get that done,” Syracuse athletic director John Wildhack previously said around the time the series was announced.
“It is an area we recruit. Obviously our alumni in Washington, it’s drivable for them. Really it was an example of we moved quick on that. Literally the day it was announced they were moving up (to FBS), (Syracuse deputy athletics director) Herm (Frazier) and I talked, and I called Dino. Liberty moved up and I told him we’re in a position we can move quick, and he said, ‘I like it,’ and Herm worked his magic.”
Syracuse isn’t the only major-conference, top-25 caliber program scheduled to play at Liberty in the coming years.
Virginia Tech is scheduled to play at Liberty in 2022. Wake Forest, Duke, North Carolina and Virginia are other ACC schools scheduled to travel to Lynchburg in the next decade.
Army and BYU, both independents with no conference scheduling mandates, have future games against the Flames. So do SEC programs Ole Miss and Arkansas, though they’re playing host.
Liberty is expecting to approach or hit a record crowd for Saturday’s game against Syracuse. The largest crowd in Williams Stadium history is 22,551 against Montana on Sept. 19, 2015.
The Orange is the first top-25 FBS opponent to play in Lynchburg.