Fans of the Syracuse Orange recently learned who the program will be facing in the ACC for the upcoming season.
As part of a new 18-game conference schedule format, Syracuse will play both North Carolina and Pittsburgh home and away in 2024-25. Home games will be against California, Clemson, Florida State, Miami, Notre Dame, SMU and Virginia Tech. The Orange will travel to face Boston College, Duke, Georgia Tech, Louisville, NC State, Virginia and Wake Forest.
Teams above are listed just in alphabetical order. More details for Syracuse’s ACC schedule, including when the Orange play who, will be announced in September.
That being said, there are some projections out there to get a better sense at where the ACC projects right now overall, as well as how the Orange (to date) match up on paper against those looming conference opponents. It’s obviously still early before the start of the year, but there is some useful takeaways in the numbers.
Here are the major ones:
Bart Torvik
Bart Torvik’s projections for Syracuse and the rest of the conference show both good and potentially concerning news.
Here is the full list of all 18 team ACC teams:
Where Syracuse and the ACC rank in Bart Torvik’s projections
ACC Opponent
Overall Ranking
Conference Rank
Adjusted Offensive Efficiency
Adjusted Defensive Efficiency
ACC Opponent
Overall Ranking
Conference Rank
Adjusted Offensive Efficiency
Adjusted Defensive Efficiency
Duke
3
1
6
6
North Carolina
15
2
17
12
Louisville
16
3
7
27
NC State
42
4
26
70
SMU
43
5
37
62
Clemson
49
6
73
28
Virginia
51
7
32
85
Miami (FL)
58
8
40
98
Syracuse
64
9
28
118
Notre Dame
66
10
64
72
Pittsburgh
74
11
62
92
Wake Forest
78
12
80
84
Virginia Tech
80
13
70
111
Florida State
81
14
88
87
California
84
15
72
114
Georgia Tech
86
16
110
66
Stanford
100
17
127
75
Boston College
102
18
77
137
Source: barttorvik.com
Syracuse ranks right in the middle at No. 9 in the ACC and No. 64 overall. Duke, North Carolina, Louisville, NC State and SMU are your current top-five, per Bart Torvik. The Orange are not that far away from the next three teams above them, which are Clemson (No 49), Virginia (No. 51) and Miami (No. 58).
That being said, there is also a pretty big tier of teams sitting between the mid-50s and mid-80s in these rankings. After Syracuse, there’s Notre Dame (No. 66), Pittsburgh (No. 74), Wake Forest (No. 78), Virginia Tech (No. 80), Florida State (No. 81), California (No. 84) and Georgia Tech (No. 86).
Bart Torvik currently thinks very highly of Syracuse’s offense, which ranks No. 28 overall in projected adjusted offensive efficiency. That’s good for fifth-best in the ACC, only trailing Duke (No. 6), Louisville (No. 7), North Carolina (No. 17) and NC State (No. 26).
On the defensive side, there’s a bigger drop in the numbers. Syracuse ranks No. 118 in adjusted defensive efficiency. The Orange are just one of four ACC schools who rank outside the top-100 in that category. Syracuse’s current projection sits second-worst in the conference, only ahead of Boston College who are at No. 137.
Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images
Using Bart Torvik’s current overall projections, Syracuse’s schedule breaks down as follows:
Top-10 in Bart Torvik: Duke (road)
No. 11 to No. 25 in Bart Torvik: North Carolina (home and road), Louisville (road)
No. 26 to No. 50 in Bart Torvik: NC State (road), SMU (home), Clemson (home)
No. 51 to No. 74 in Bart Torvik: Virginia (road), Miami (home), Notre Dame (home), Pittsburgh (home and road)
No. 75 to No. 99 in Bart Torvik: Wake Forest (road), Virginia Tech (home), Florida State (home), California (home), Georgia Tech (road)
No. 100 or lower in Bart Torvik: Boston College (road)
(Note: Stanford is the one opponent that Syracuse will not have to face in its conference schedule for this year)
ESPN’s Bracketology
ESPN’s most recent bracketology update sees Syracuse facing conference opponents projected to be in the hunt to make the 2026 NCAA Tournament in exactly half of its 18 ACC games.
The full list:
Duke (road): No. 1 seed
North Carolina (home and road): No. 5 seed
Louisville (road): No. 6 seed
Miami (home): Last Four Byes
SMU (home): Last Four In
NC State (road): Last Four In
Clemson (home): Next Four Out
Virginia (road): Next Four Out
Notre Dame (home): Next Four Out
In theory, out of Syracuse’s 18 conference games in 2025-26, 10 will be against programs that are at least being considered by this bracketology update to be in tournament territory.
Photo by Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
That being said, of those 10 games, six will be against teams projected right now on the tournament bubble.
FanDuel: National Championship Winner
For a little bit of fun, here’s the current odds among the ACC teams to win the 2026 NCAA Championship, according to FanDuel:
Duke: +1100
Louisville: +1700
North Carolina: +4000
NC State: +6000
Virginia: +8000
Miami: +10,000
Syracuse: +15,000
SMU: +15,000
Clemson: +20,000
Notre Dame: +20,000
Virginia Tech: +20,000
Wake Forest: +20,000
Pittsburgh: +30,000
California: +30,000
Stanford: +30,000
Florida State: +30,000
Georgia Tech: +30,000
Boston College: +50,000
Now it’s your turn: did any of the numbers jump out to you regarding the Orange?