The Syracuse–West Virginia football rivalry is an American
college football 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 ...
between the
Syracuse Orange football team of
Syracuse University and
West Virginia Mountaineers football
The West Virginia Mountaineers football team represents West Virginia University (also referred to as "WVU" or "West Virginia") in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of college football. West Virginia plays its home games at Milan Puskar ...
team of
West Virginia University
West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State Coll ...
.
History
The Ben Schwartzwalder Trophy
is the
trophy that went annually to the winner of the game. It was introduced in
1993
File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...
and is named after former WVU football player and Syracuse head coach
Ben Schwartzwalder
Floyd Burdette Schwartzwalder (June 2, 1909 – April 28, 1993) was a Hall of Fame football coach at Syracuse University, where he trained future National Football League stars such as Jim Brown, Larry Csonka, Floyd Little and Ernie Davis, t ...
, who died in April of that year. It was sculpted by Syracuse player
Jim Ridlon
James Arthur Ridlon (born July 11, 1934) is a former American football safety in the National Football League for the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys. He played college football and college lacrosse at Syracuse University. After footba ...
.
West Virginia won the first trophy game 43–0 at Syracuse and has gone on to win 11. Syracuse has won the trophy eight times and leads the series 34–27. With West Virginia's move to the
Big 12 Conference
The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...
in 2012 and Syracuse's move to the
Atlantic Coast Conference in 2013, the future of the series is in doubt with no meetings currently planned.
The two teams met in the
2012 Pinstripe Bowl
The 2012 New Era Pinstripe Bowl was a post-season American college football bowl game held on December 29, 2012 at Yankee Stadium in the New York City borough of The Bronx in the United States. The third edition of the Pinstripe Bowl began at 3:15 ...
and
2018 Camping World Bowl
The 2018 Camping World Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 28, 2018, between the West Virginia Mountaineers and the Syracuse Orange. It was the 29th edition of the Camping World Bowl, and one of the 2018–19 bowl games con ...
, which Syracuse won 38–14 and 34–18 respectively. However, the trophy was not exchanged.
Game results
See also
*
List of NCAA college football rivalry games
This is a list of rivalry games in college football in the United States. The list also shows any trophy awarded to the winner of the rivalry between the teams.
NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision
...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Syracuse-West Virginia football rivalry
College football rivalries in the United States
Syracuse Orange football
West Virginia Mountaineers football