I live in Boston and cheap airline flights has changed where kids in the Boston area consider for college. Twenty or thirty years ago, kids would consider going to an upstate private school as it was drivable. Now kids realize it's easier to fly to the Carolinas or the midwest than driving to central NY. That said, private schools like Colgate, Cornell, Syracuse,... have little to worry about student demand although they do face cost pressures like almost every college, but other privates do have problems attracting students especially with the college age student demographic issues in the Northeast.
On topic, the Syracuse job is a top 15 college basketball job. History, fan base, conference, proximity to recruits,... Sure, the ACC is not the ideal conference for Syracuse, but the conference shouldn't hold Syracuse back. But, Syracuse needs to find a way to play 1 or 2 games per year in MSG to keep NYC area alums involved. The key for Syracuse is to find a coach that wants to be in Syracuse over the long haul. UConn identified Hurley as a potential lifer and pushed out Ollie even though he had a buyout and he seems settled there.