2026 Schedule Tidbits | Page 12 | Syracusefan.com

2026 Schedule Tidbits



Duke hosting Bellarmine on 1/31. So they got that going for them at least . . .

So they’ve got Bellarmine, Air Force and Jacksonville confirmed and … that’s it so far. Yikes. Not sure if it’s been mentioned, because I’m too lazy to go back through and look, but they’re not even playing Richmond this year.
 
last year duke played: princeton, penn, richmond, denver, michigan, bellarmine, jacksonville, st joes, air force, providence, bu

this year theyre playing (so far): bellarmine, jacksonville, air force, vermont

teams they played last year that we know theyre NOT playing this year: princeton, richmond, michigan, bu

they could still be playing denver. they could also still be playing penn, but if they are, it has to be a new date...could also play st joes again

among possible new teams, we know they are NOT playing: the entire b1g, harvard, dartmouth, brown, gtown, army, lehigh, lafayette, navy, fairfield, high point, nova, hofstra, umass

so these are the only decent-good new teams they still could be playing: cornell, yale, towson, colgate, albany, delaware, utah. cornell is the only one of these teams that is a lock to be top 20

i prob forgot someone, but thats the rundown...they could play cornell three times and their ooc schedule would still be a calamity
 
last year duke played: princeton, penn, richmond, denver, michigan, bellarmine, jacksonville, st joes, air force, providence, bu

this year theyre playing (so far): bellarmine, jacksonville, air force, vermont

teams they played last year that we know theyre NOT playing this year: princeton, richmond, michigan, bu

they could still be playing denver. they could also still be playing penn, but if they are, it has to be a new date...could also play st joes again

among possible new teams, we know they are NOT playing: the entire b1g, harvard, dartmouth, brown, gtown, army, lehigh, lafayette, navy, fairfield, high point, nova, hofstra, umass

so these are the only decent-good new teams they still could be playing: cornell, yale, towson, colgate, albany, delaware, utah. cornell is the only one of these teams that is a lock to be top 20

i prob forgot someone, but thats the rundown...they could play cornell three times and their ooc schedule would still be a calamity
If they play 15 games again, which Danowski likes to do, they’ve got SEVEN unknown games at this point. Which is your entire list of “decent-good.” Like you say, no matter who they play, their OOC schedule will be atrocious. Either everyone is tired of playing them for some reason, or they know they’re going to be trash.
 
last year duke played: princeton, penn, richmond, denver, michigan, bellarmine, jacksonville, st joes, air force, providence, bu

this year theyre playing (so far): bellarmine, jacksonville, air force, vermont

teams they played last year that we know theyre NOT playing this year: princeton, richmond, michigan, bu

they could still be playing denver. they could also still be playing penn, but if they are, it has to be a new date...could also play st joes again

among possible new teams, we know they are NOT playing: the entire b1g, harvard, dartmouth, brown, gtown, army, lehigh, lafayette, navy, fairfield, high point, nova, hofstra, umass

so these are the only decent-good new teams they still could be playing: cornell, yale, towson, colgate, albany, delaware, utah. cornell is the only one of these teams that is a lock to be top 20

i prob forgot someone, but thats the rundown...they could play cornell three times and their ooc schedule would still be a calamity

Good call on Albany, I bet they are playing as UVA isn't this year and obviously Cuse isn't. Gate is already playing Cuse and UVA so I find it unlikely they are playing Dukde as well.

Best guess I have at this point would be Cornell, Yale, Towson, Albany, Utah and maybe one more.

One of the more bizarre schedules I have ever seen.
 
Albany is probably trying not to play a playin game this year

They schedule pretty hard most years, this year might actually be a slight step back compared to the last few years. Albany's problem is their conference overall is weak and they have lost pretty much every high end OOC game the last 4-5 years.
 
The Cornell fans over at fanlax do seem to think Cornell will be playing Duke (and Denver). Unconfirmed but it does give credence to some speculation on Duke's OOC opponents. As many have noted, still would not be a very deep OOC schedule for Duke in terms of quality.
 
Looking at Duke's schedule more in depth:
Jan 31 Bellarmine at Duke
Feb 15 Vermont at Duke
Feb 21 Jacksonville at Duke
Mar 7 Duke at Air Force
Mar 28 Duke at Syracuse
Apr 4 UVa at Duke

Duke plays ND and UNC in April
Syracuse plays their OOC game (Colgate) on April 18, so Duke plays either ND or UNC on the 18th.
Virginia plays UNC on the 18th, so Duke - ND should on the 18th

Looking at the final weekend ~ April 25, Virginia has their OOC game with Drexel and Syracuse plays ND. So Duke should play UNC that weekend.

Leaving Duke to play an OOC opponent on the weekend of April 11

Cornell is the Ivy League team that doesn't play in conference on the weekend of April 11.
 
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Looking at Duke's schedule more in depth:
Jan 31 Bellarmine at Duke
Feb 15 Vermont at Duke
Feb 21 Jacksonville at Duke
Mar 7 Duke at Air Force
Mar 28 Duke at Syracuse
Apr 4 UVa at Duke

Duke plays ND and UNC in April
Syracuse plays their OOC game (Colgate) on April 18, so Duke plays either ND or UNC on the 18th.
Virginia plays UNC on the 18th, so Duke - ND should on the 18th

Looking at the final weekend ~ April 25, Virginia has their OOC game with Drexel and Syracuse plays ND. So Duke should play UNC that weekend.

Leaving Duke to play an OOC opponent on the weekend of April 11

Cornell is the Ivy League team that doesn't play in conference on the weekend of April 11.

Sounds like Duke vs Cornell in LI that weekend.
 
Penn schedule. They host UNC the Friday before they play Syracuse.


Yale schedule. Duke doesn't appear on either Penn or Yale's schedule.


Duke's OOC is Denver and Cornell, even Rutgers thinks that's light.
 
duke's schedule is such an abomination that one has to wonder if dino is planning to step down and hand the reins to his son and so he softened the schedule to inflate their win loss record in matt's first year...i havent heard thats happening but the schedule is so bad you have to think somethings going on there
 
duke's schedule is such an abomination that one has to wonder if dino is planning to step down and hand the reins to his son and so he softened the schedule to inflate their win loss record in matt's first year...i havent heard thats happening but the schedule is so bad you have to think somethings going on there

Could be ... maybe Dano just doesn't have high hopes for his team this year? The attack is going to be very, very young. Kershis is the leading returner, he's only a soph and he didn't exactly light the world on fire last year. Gaffney and Menke come in as transfers, but they don't strike me as "game changers". Just doesn't seem like a lot of meat on the bone. The defense should be good, but I think all of the ACC defenses should be pretty solid next year. Midfield could be a strength with Sloat and Johnston but that attack line might really hold them back.

At least someone in lax media has picked up on this ...

 
Could be ... maybe Dano just doesn't have high hopes for his team this year? The attack is going to be very, very young. Kershis is the leading returner, he's only a soph and he didn't exactly light the world on fire last year. Gaffney and Menke come in as transfers, but they don't strike me as "game changers". Just doesn't seem like a lot of meat on the bone. The defense should be good, but I think all of the ACC defenses should be pretty solid next year. Midfield could be a strength with Sloat and Johnston but that attack line might really hold them back.

At least someone in lax media has picked up on this ...


sloat has to play attack. colsey prob gets in there too if hes healthy. they have talent but i dont trust dino jr. to maximize it...

delgado really came on at the end of last year. he's a player
 
Could be ... maybe Dano just doesn't have high hopes for his team this year? The attack is going to be very, very young. Kershis is the leading returner, he's only a soph and he didn't exactly light the world on fire last year. Gaffney and Menke come in as transfers, but they don't strike me as "game changers". Just doesn't seem like a lot of meat on the bone. The defense should be good, but I think all of the ACC defenses should be pretty solid next year. Midfield could be a strength with Sloat and Johnston but that attack line might really hold them back.

At least someone in lax media has picked up on this ...



Lot of young talent there, could be taking a sort of approach Gait took his 1st year here where the OOC was lighter than usual but even then we still played Hop, Maryland, and Cornell and a top 15 Army team. This schedule is very bizarre, even if you want to dial it back a bit this is dialing it back to like a bottom Patriot team level. I agree with nyclax, something feels up here.
 

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