The Big East Conference was a collegiate athletics conference that consisted of as many as 16 universities in the eastern half of the United States from 1979 to 2013. The conference's members participated in 24 NCAA sports. The conference had a history of success at the national level in basketball throughout its history, while its shorter football program, created by inviting one college and four other "associate members" into the conference, resulted in two national championships.
Syracuse, New York, United States, is a top-division, minor-league and college sports city. Teams include the Syracuse Mets of AAA Baseball and the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL. The most attended sporting events in Syracuse are those of the NCAA Division I Syracuse University Orange.
Dwight Jason Freeney is an American former football player who played as a defensive end and linebacker for 16 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Syracuse Orangemen, earning unanimous All-American honors. He was selected by the Indianapolis Colts in the first round of the 2002 NFL draft. With the Colts, Freeney won Super Bowl XLI over the Chicago Bears, and made seven Pro Bowls. He also played for the San Diego Chargers, Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, Seattle Seahawks and Detroit Lions.
Robert Sean Moore is an American professional football coach and former player who is the wide receivers coach for the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League (NFL). Moore played in the NFL as a wide receiver with the New York Jets from 1990 to 1994 and the Arizona Cardinals from 1995 to 2001. He played college football for the Syracuse Orange, earning All-American honors in 1989.
The Syracuse Orange are the athletic teams that represent Syracuse University. The school is a member of NCAA Division I and the Atlantic Coast Conference. Until 2013, Syracuse was a member of the Big East Conference.
Gregory McIntosh Robinson was an American college and professional football coach. Robinson served as the head football coach at Syracuse University from 2005 to 2008. He has served as an assistant coach with several other college football programs and for three teams in the National Football League (NFL): the New York Jets from 1990 to 1994, the Denver Broncos from 1995 to 2000, and the Kansas City Chiefs from 2001 to 2003. With the Broncos, Robinson was a member of two Super Bowl championship teams. In more recent years he has served as the defensive coordinator at the University of Texas at Austin, in 2004 and for part of the 2013 season, and at the University of Michigan, from 2009 to 2010.
Lawrence Ronald Costello was an American professional basketball player and coach. He played for the Philadelphia Warriors and the Syracuse Nationals / Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA, and the Wilkes-Barre Barons of the EPBL. He served as head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks and the Chicago Bulls.
John Mackey was an American professional football player who was a tight end for the Baltimore Colts and the San Diego Chargers. He was born in Roosevelt, New York and attended Syracuse University. He was the first president of the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) following the AFL-NFL merger, serving from 1970 to 1973. Mackey was also a major reason the NFLPA created the "88 Plan", which financially supports ex-players who required living assistance in later years.
Will D. Allen is an American former professional football player who was a cornerback in the National Football League (NFL). Allen played college football for the Syracuse Orange. He was selected in the first round of the 2001 NFL draft by the New York Giants.
Ernest R. Davis was an American college football player for the Syracuse Orangemen who won the Heisman Trophy in 1961. He was the award's first African American recipient. Davis was selected by the Washington Redskins with the first overall pick of the 1962 NFL Draft, but was almost immediately traded to the Cleveland Browns. He was diagnosed with leukemia that same year, and died shortly after at age 23 without ever playing in a professional game. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1979 and was the subject of the 2008 film The Express: The Ernie Davis Story.
Robert Barry Burnett is an American former professional football player who was a defensive end for 14 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Syracuse Orange.
Anthony Michael Peter Gabriel is a former professional Canadian football pass receiver who played in the Canadian Football League from 1971 to 1981. He played for both the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Ottawa Rough Riders. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in August 1985. In 2014, he was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
Dave Pasch is an ESPN announcer, covering the NBA, college football, and college basketball. He is also the radio play-by-play voice of the Arizona Cardinals.
The Syracuse Orange football team represents Syracuse University in the sport of American football. The Orange compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Syracuse is the only Division I FBS school in New York to compete in one of the Power Five conferences.
Marvin Graves is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football for the Syracuse Orange, becoming one of the top signal-callers in the program's history.
Douglas Charles Marrone is an American football coach and former offensive tackle. He played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Miami Dolphins and New Orleans Saints. He came to prominence as the head coach at Syracuse from 2009 to 2012, where he previously played college football. He also served as the head coach of the NFL's Buffalo Bills from 2013 to 2014 and the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2016 to 2020.
The 2001 Kansas State Wildcats football team represented Kansas State University in the 2001 NCAA Division I-A football season. The team's head coach was Bill Snyder. The Wildcats played their home games in KSU Stadium. 2001 saw the Wildcats finish with a record of 6–6, and a 3–5 record in Big 12 Conference play. The season culminated with a loss to Syracuse in the 2001 Insight.com Bowl.
Timothy Frederick Lester is an American football coach who is the offensive coordinator for the University of Iowa football team. He was previously on the Green Bay Packers coaching staff. Prior to that, Lester was the head football coach at Western Michigan University from 2017 to 2022. He played quarterback at Western Michigan from 1996 to 1999 and professionally for the Chicago Enforcers of the XFL in 2001. He then served as the head football coach at Saint Joseph's College in 2004 and at Elmhurst College from 2008 to 2012.
The Pittsburgh–Syracuse football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Pittsburgh Panthers and Syracuse Orange. It began in 1916 and has been played every year since 1955. The Panthers and Orange were both Eastern football independents for most of their history but have shared the same football conference since 1991 when the Big East Football Conference was formed from Eastern football independents. Pitt is the most played opponent for Syracuse and Syracuse is the third most played opponent for Pitt. Sharing membership in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) since 2013, the Panthers and Orange are designated cross-divisional opponents. Beginning in 2023, the ACC eliminated the Atlantic and Coastal divisions, going to one division. The Panthers and Orange were designated primary opponents, ensuring they will meet annually. They have played a total of 79 times, with Pittsburgh leading the series 43–32–3.
The 2016 Syracuse vs. Pittsburgh football game was a regular-season college football game between the Syracuse Orange and the Pittsburgh Panthers, played on November 26, 2016 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The game held the record for the most combined points scored in an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) regulation game with 137 total points, breaking the previous record by a single point. The record was broken on November 5, 2022 when the SMU Mustangs defeated the Houston Cougars 77–63 for a combined 140 points.
