If the school name was Rochester University and the Dome was in Rochester I think it actually would make a difference- for Rochester kids only. Tell me, if this was an alternate reality and the University of Rochester was the D1 football program and not Cuse why would anyone outside of 45 minutes from Rochester care? That's what SU faces but we're too close to the situation to see it. One of Syracuse's biggest obstacles is that it's a private school named after a medium size city in upstate NY with a very small geographic radius of influence. Prospects from Buffalo, Rochester, and NYC/LI hardly feel any sort of state pride for attending SU. Other than a handful of years in AD Gross's tenure, Syracuse has never been marketed to athletes as NY's team, it was marketed as an exclusive private school destination. That has helped us with students/prospects out of state but not in state. Winning would help to raise some interest in those outlying areas but the reality is that we are a P5 school with no local/regional recruiting base. We have to recruit nationally out of necessity and where our coaches have previous connections. I agree that brands sell schools to recruits/high schools and the ND and PSU brand have benefited for a long time from getting kids out of NY (this is not some new phenomenon) which has a mutual benefit of raising the profile of those high schools that are able to develop talent to go to those schools. Syracuse needs to develop an identity and win games if it wants to break these cycles. The template is there, Baylor was in the same position and they quickly turned their offensive identity into a brand which allows them to compete with the very best for talent. We still probably won't become the destination of choice for all NY blue chippers but it will help us recruit better in NY/PA/NJ and nationally with the kids that fall in love with the style over the school.
