Does Syracuse Football Have A Real Chance At A New Year’s Six Bowl?

Yesterday on Levack and Goz, the guys were joined by college football insider Bill Bender. Bender, who covers college football for the Sporting News, offered up his take to as why he believes Syracuse can be in the mix for a major college football bowl game.

Last night's college football committee placed the Orange at thirteenth in the country. Only the Fiesta and Peach bowl will be offering at-large bids to their bowl games. In previous years, an ACC representative would go to the Orange Bowl however this season the Orange Bowl is being used as one of the college football playoff semi final games. If the at large spots were determined by last night's rankings, the Orange would be left out. LSU, West Virginia, Kentucky and UCF would have taken those final four at large bids.

In a breakdown done by syracuse.com earlier in the week , author Nate Mink offered what Orange fans should root for in the next few week to make it happen. (The most important being Syracuse winning their last three games)

LSU has a challenging game at Texas A&M on Nov. 24 that will have significant implications on the Tigers' final ranking.

Mississippi State's resume will get a significant boost with a victory at No. 1 Alabama. A fourth loss, however, will knock it out of the New Year's Six picture.

It's also important for a few of the top teams to win out.

Should Clemson be upset at Boston College or in the ACC championship game, it will likely still be ranked above Syracuse and could be bounced into the at-large pool.

The champions of the Power Five conferences automatically earn a New Year's Six bid. So, should Pitt or anyone else in the Coastal Division steal an at-large bid as ACC champion, that would not help the Orange at all.

Ditto for the Big Ten, should the West Division champion upset Michigan or Ohio State, and the Pac-12, should the South Division champion upset the champion in the North Division.

Before Syracuse can make plans to either Atlanta or Glendale, they will have to worry about defeating this week's opponent. Kickoff this weekend against the Lousivile Cardinals is set for Friday night at 7pm inside the Carrier Dome.