On Friday, the Syracuse Orange visit the Temple Owls in their final Big East Conference football game ever. The Orange (6-5, 4-2 Big East) seem to be playing for just a chance to cement its second winning record in 10 seasons, however, there's a very small chance SU can still earn the league's automatic BCS bowl berth.
According to CBS Sports' Evan Hilbert, here's how:
Scenario No. 2: Louisville loses to UConn, beats Rutgers; Rutgers loses out; Cincinnati loses one of its last two; Syracuse beats Temple.
Now, again, we create a mini-conference between the three teams at 5-2. That would be Louisville, Syracuse, and Rutgers. But, uh-oh, head-to-head records here are all 1-1. Louisville beat Rutgers, lost to Syracuse; Syracuse beat Louisville, lost to Rutgers; Rutgers beat Syracuse, lost to Louisville. In this case, the determining factor becomes which team has the highest BCS ranking. As of Nov. 17, CBSSports.com's Jerry Palm has Rutgers (18) ahead of Louisville (20) ahead of Syracuse (43). So, in this case, the most likely outcome would be Louisville leaping over Rutgers after having won and edging out Syracuse for the BCS berth based on ranking. Unless, of course, something wacky happens, like Connecticut beating Louisville 40-0 and the Cards turning around and beating Rutgers 7-6, then, maybe, Syracuse somehow ends up ranked higher.
Obviously, this scenario is calling for a lot to happen but truly anything can happen in the Big East.
What's also a bit disheartening is Syracuse was oh-so-close to defeating the Rutgers Scarlet Knights and Cincinnati Bearcats. It can be argued, the Orange controlled both games, however, were undone by their own wrong-doings - costly turnovers and bad penalties being the main problem.
By weekends end, Syracuse football fans will more than likely be asking "what if." Yet, it's still impressive that after starting the season 1-3, SU is in this possession.