Could a National Championship change a town?

[CuseOnly]

We would unveil a banner in the Dome for sure.

“Home of the 20** NCCA National Champs”

The T-Shirts created by a National Championship would be glorious!

 

[44cuse]

Was thinking today with all the current optimism in the program... what would a National Championship look like in Syracuse? CNY? Upstate (includes WNY)? New York?

What does it look like? What does it change?


“Syracuse will never be a football town”, “people don’t care”.


I’d argue we have the same die hards anywhere else has. We’ve just been bleeding for nothing for 20 years. What happens when we reach the pinnacle?


This isn’t a 2019 national championship prediction thread. More just a, what if it did and how would the people react.

Hopefully not like Buffalo if the Sabres or Bills won it all!

It would change the town, just like basketball did. But we don’t have the same diehards as everywhere else. It doesn’t matter at all really, were it to happen. But college football in the NE (from a fan passion perspective) doesn’t come close to what things are like in the South. It’s just two entirely different things.

44cuse

 

[bevosu]

The bars would do better.

 

[Trueblue25]

It would change the town, just like basketball did. But we don’t have the same diehards as everywhere else. It doesn’t matter at all really, were it to happen. But college football in the NE (from a fan passion perspective) doesn’t come close to what things are like in the South. It’s just two entirely different things.

44cuse

I mean we’re not driving to pitt to poison some famous thousand year old oak trees...

But it’s so underrated how great of fans people from upstate (utica/binghamton/cuse/oswego) are. I mean look what happened to our WNY brethren with Bills mafia and thr Sabres. We just say its not close because a new generation walks the street who’s first cuse football memory is a loss to Akron.

 

[gbo]

Clemson definitely has larger crowds and I hate it...hope that helps.

 

[Atlcuse44]

Living here in GA, you have a ton of transplants who cheer for their hometown teams but if you go out of the urban areas, your local Georgian is most likely a die-hard Bulldog fan.
I grew up in Syracuse and I can't say that NY is the same. Yes, you can find diehard SU fans from Buffalo to Long Island but it is not the same as here in the South. I think a lot of fans are more pro football oriented and have a casual interest in SU.
Would sustained success and a National Championship change some of that? I think you would see a lot more of those casual fans be more interested and some become diehards. Never to the level as it is down here though, where college football is a religion.

 

[44cuse]

I mean we’re not driving to pitt to poison some famous thousand year old oak trees...

But it’s so underrated how great of fans people from upstate (utica/binghamton/cuse/oswego) are. I mean look what happened to our WNY brethren with Bills mafia and thr Sabres. We just say its not close because a new generation walks the street who’s first cuse football memory is a loss to Akron.

I would agree with that. Look, 30K people go to The Dome in the winter and it's a rite of passage that all of us are proud of. And I really do believe that a Natl Championship would change a lot. No question it's underrated (or not understood) in terms of how people understand upstate fandom. There are certainly similarities and seeing how you could probably count 50+ people a day wearing SU gear is one of them.

But there is also a difference. I'm lucky to be able to schedule at least one trip a year through deep SEC football country. Sometimes I'll start in Baton Rouge, others in Jackson and travel through the region for a week. Not some...not a couple...almost EVERY meeting starts with talk of college football. And here's the kicker: even if it isn't college football season. I've literally had one exception: a meeting in Little Rock where the meeting started talking about Nolan Richardson and The Barn. It's just a different thing the way College Football is institutionalized in SEC country.

No question though that Upstate fans are underrated. 100% agree.

44cuse

 

[cuse309]

It changes small towns like Syracuse, or Clemson, or a Manhattan Kansas. I can't imagine it changin a place like LA, or Houston Texas.

 

[Trueblue25]

It changes small towns like Syracuse, or Clemson, or a Manhattan Kansas. I can't imagine it changin a place like LA, or Houston Texas.

Syracuse is a city of 150,000 people. I don’t know if i’d call it small town. The immediate metropolitan area is well over half a million people im pretty sure

 

[xc84]

Never to the level as it is down here though, where college football is a religion.

While I would love for the Orange to win a NC (1) I don't care if it is a "football school" as long as it is beating football schools and (2) I don't want football to be a religion at SU.

 

[cuse10]

Syracuse is a city of 150,000 people. I don’t know if i’d call it small town. The immediate metropolitan area is well over half a million people im pretty sure

I certainly wouldn't call it a mid sized city.

 

[dollarbill44]

It would mean the end of the NCAA.

 

[Eric15]

Dont see many other programs travel and maintain fan’hood like we have through two decades of awfulness.

Our football fans don't really "travel", per se. It's just not who we are as a football culture. We aren't the type of fanbase who piles the family into the RV and follows our team anywhere in the country like SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 fanbases do. We are more of a pro-style fanbase where if SU is playing in a location where there are transplants who live in the area "e.g. metro NYC, DC, North Carolina, Florida" we will make our presence known big-time. But when SU plays at Louisville, for instance, we probably have half a section filled, tops. It's just who we are, there is nothing good or bad about it.

 

[bcubs9497]

Isn’t that an overused cliche? If Alabama suffered through 17 years of irrelevance would all those rednecks still show up?

No. Or, if they did, it'd be to string up the coach.

 

[dooey139]

Syracuse is a city of 150,000 people. I don’t know if i’d call it small town. The immediate metropolitan area is well over half a million people im pretty sure

I mean you did infer it was a town in your subject heading

 

[bcubs9497]

Living here in GA, you have a ton of transplants who cheer for their hometown teams but if you go out of the urban areas, your local Georgian is most likely a die-hard Bulldog fan.
I grew up in Syracuse and I can't say that NY is the same. Yes, you can find diehard SU fans from Buffalo to Long Island but it is not the same as here in the South. I think a lot of fans are more pro football oriented and have a casual interest in SU.
Would sustained success and a National Championship change some of that? I think you would see a lot more of those casual fans be more interested and some become diehards. Never to the level as it is down here though, where college football is a religion.

It really is. I'd say, without exaggeration, that 'Bama football in this state is bigger (more important) than church.

 

[cuse309]

Syracuse is a city of 150,000 people. I don’t know if i’d call it small town. The immediate metropolitan area is well over half a million people im pretty sure

Small enough that a NC in football would be a big deal.

 

[EnviroSciGuy]

I mean we’re not driving to pitt to poison some famous thousand year old oak trees...

Only because we Stumpies would never stand for it...

 

[Trueblue25]

Only because we Stumpies would never stand for it...

We have an envirosciguy?

Tell me you’re on the off topic forum sir

 

[EnviroSciGuy]

We have an envirosciguy?

Tell me you’re on the off topic forum sir

Yes, but primarily as a lurker.