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Message: [QUOTE="PAcuse, post: 5612842, member: 715"] TL DR [IMG alt="John Candy No GIF by Laff"]https://media0.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTMzODIxMDRjMGxpaXk5bW8zZmN2NXg3bzZtdmJ3aHF0MHowc2UyeWlub2ZxemQ4YiZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/pD7YIQoUwgb9cnX3FJ/200.gif[/IMG] Syracuse has produced 10-win seasons in both 2018 and 2025. That alone matters in a Power-conference context. The idea that spending equals winning just doesn’t hold up when you look at the data. College football increasingly mirrors professional sports in this way: money helps, but it is not deterministic. In fact, LSU and Texas ranked in the top three nationally in football spending and neither had a great season relative to that investment. Being top-3 in spending and still falling short of elite results undercuts the argument that budget alone drives success. It gets clearer when you zoom out. Among the top-25 spending programs, several teams spent $10+ million and still failed to reach 10 wins: [LIST] [*]Penn State [*]Florida [*]Clemson [*]Arkansas [*]Florida State [/LIST] High payrolls did not insulate those programs from mediocre outcomes. By contrast, Syracuse performs efficiently for a non-state school that relies heavily on alumni funding rather than massive public subsidies. That doesn’t mean the status quo is perfect there is obvious room to grow, particularly in corporate sponsorships and NIL-adjacent partnerships but the foundation is not broken. From an infrastructure and brand standpoint, Syracuse checks real boxes: [LIST] [*]Facilities are competitive [*]The program has legitimate historical relevance [*]The Dome is a unique, nationally recognizable venue [*]Fran Brown has demonstrated that Syracuse [I]can[/I] recruit at a Power-conference level [/LIST] Yes, last season was a disaster there’s no point pretending otherwise. But that season exists alongside a 10-win year under the same head coach. Ignoring one while fixating on the other is bad analysis. Looking at ACC performance this decade, Syracuse is not the worst: 12. Syracuse 29–33 (46.8%) 13. Virginia Tech 27–32 (45.8%) 14. Georgia Tech 25–35 (41.7%) 15. Cal 22–32 (40.7%) 16. Virginia 22–34 (39.3%) 17. Stanford 16–38 (29.6%) Programs that are truly lost causes don’t produce 10-win seasons, don’t recruit at a Power-conference level, and don’t get top 30 recruiting classes and high level transfers. Syracuse does all three. The data says this program’s ceiling is real and its floor, while ugly at times, is not existential. If you’re looking for irrelevance, look elsewhere. Syracuse’s problem is inconsistency, not inevitability. [/QUOTE]

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