The Pittsburgh–Syracuse football rivalry is an American

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

rivalry A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant o ...

between the

Pittsburgh Panthers The Pittsburgh Panthers, commonly also referred to as the Pitt Panthers, are the athletic teams representing the University of Pittsburgh, although the term is colloquially used to refer to other aspects of the university such as alumni, facu ...

and

Syracuse Orange The Syracuse Orange are the athletic teams that represent Syracuse University. The school is a member of NCAA Division I and the Atlantic Coast Conference. Until 2013, Syracuse was a member of the Big East Conference. The school's mascot is ...

. It began in 1916 and has been played every year since 1955. The Panthers and Orange were both Eastern football independents for most of their history but have shared the same football conference since 1991 when the Big East Football Conference was formed from Eastern football independents. Pitt is the most played opponent for Syracuse and Syracuse is the third most played opponent for Pitt. Sharing membership in the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

(ACC) since 2013, the Panthers and Orange are designated cross-divisional opponents and have played a total of 77 times. Pittsburgh leads the series 42–31–3.

History

Series record

From 1916–56, Pittsburgh led 8–2–2, but Syracuse went 11–5 to tie the series up. Pittsburgh then went on an 11-year winning streak from 1973–83. However, Syracuse went 16–1–1 from 1984–2001 to take the series lead (29–25–3). Pittsburgh has gone 18–2 since to retake the lead.

Big East Conference (1991–2012)

Syracuse was a charter member of the Big East Conference, founded as a basketball prioritized conference in 1979 that did not sponsor football. Pitt joined Syracuse as a member of the Big East Conference in 1982. Both Pitt and Syracuse moved their football teams, both playing as Independents, into the Big East Football Conference in 1991 when they and other football-playing members of the Big East, along with additional Eastern independent teams, decided to form a football conference under the auspices of the existing Big East Conference. Since 1991, Pittsburgh and Syracuse have played twenty-two times while in the Big East until trouble started to rumble through the conference starting in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

with the "football" and "non-football" schools of the conference, led to instability in the conference. Several schools left the conference for the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Big East became more unstable starting in

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when Pittsburgh and Syracuse submitted formal applications to join the ACC, which were accepted on September 18, 2011.

Atlantic Coast Conference (2013–present)

Pittsburgh and Syracuse officially joined the ACC on July 1, 2013. Pittsburgh is placed in the Coastal division of the ACC and Syracuse is in the Atlantic division. The teams of the ACC have a permanent inter-divisional opponent, where a team from the Atlantic and Coastal divisions will play annually which was added for traditional rivalries like the

North Carolina–NC State football rivalry The North Carolina–NC State football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the North Carolina Tar Heels football team of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the NC State Wolfpack football team of North Carolin ...

to continue annually despite not being in the same division. When Pittsburgh and Syracuse joined the conference they were made each other's permanent inter-divisional opponent.

Game results

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pittsburgh-Syracuse football rivalry College football rivalries in the United States Pittsburgh Panthers football Syracuse Orange football