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Message: [QUOTE="sutomcat, post: 1332692, member: 27"] [B][FONT=Arial][SIZE=6][COLOR=#ff8000]SU News[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/B] [IMG]http://imgick.pennlive.com/home/penn-media/width620/img/sports_impact/photo/17216466-mmmain.jpg[/IMG] [B][URL='http://www.pennlive.com/sports/index.ssf/2015/03/syracuse_basketball_like_penn.html']Syracuse Basketball, Like Penn State Football, Has a Marquee Name That Can't Easily be Dimmed (pennlive.com; Jones)[/URL][/B] Today's Bizarro Story on Syracuse... [I]... That's because the facilities are first-rate, its league has unmatched exposure with the Big Ten Network, the resultant revenue stream is obscene and football money drives everything these days. And the conference has spread east toward Penn State with the latest expansion and clearly is planning to cultivate the region. In the same way, I think Syracuse will be able to overcome the most important NCAA sanctions it suffered last week. But it's no tap-in. Orange basketball might be shaken for a time for these reasons: The region itself is, like State College, isolated and not inviting. The weather truly sucks. The combined football/basketball facility has not been upgraded essentially since it was built. And SU is an outlier in its new conference; it is just beginning to fight the geographic battle Penn State has for 25 years. Add in the fact that basketball coach Jim Boeheim, at age 70, logically should start considering retirement with scholarship sanctions hanging out there for the next four years. I think it would actually be for the best. All that combined, you wonder if the Orange aren't headed for a dry patch - not next season when Boeheim has plenty of firepower back aided by a very good 4-man recruiting class. But in 2017 and 2018, the waters could get choppy, especially trying to compete in the ACC. There is evidence that some sort of sweeping rehab of the Carrier Dome is imminent, maybe to be announced this year. I think that is a must. [B]The place is a smelly dump[/B], essentially untouched since its completion in 1980. If there is a less pleasant place to see a game in September than a dome with no air-conditioning (named after an air-conditioning company), I'm not familiar with it. And the program simply doesn't seem to belong in its new neighborhood. Syracuse means the Big East. But the Big East is gone. The Orange would fit much better in the Big Ten. But that ship has sailed. But you know what? At least for basketball, it's still about the Syracuse brand. And it always will be. Recruits all up and down the I-95 corridor know it. That hasn't changed. Once the loss of the 12 scholarships has been served, I don't expect Orange hoops to miss a beat with recruiting any more than Penn State football has. The question is whether Boeheim, disgraced and [B]branded as the cheater everyone always assumed he was[/B], not grows defiant in his old age and outstays his welcome out of some sort of perverse spite. ...[/I] [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?