Think the defection of Miami and Virginia Tech made your life tough as a Syracuse sports fan?

Meet Rob Edson.

Edson, SU’s associate director of athletics, is the man in charge of scheduling for the Syracuse football team. When the Hokies and Hurricanes left for the Atlantic Coast Conference this summer, it flipped his life at the office upside-down.

His mission: to replace SU’s two marquee home games in mere months. Sounds easy enough – until you learn that college football teams set their schedules anywhere from four to 10 years in advance.

Edson’s unenviable task became a little clearer yesterday after the NCAA ruled that Boston College – the third Big East team to jump ship to the ACC – would play the 2004 season as a member of the Big East. The three Conference USA teams headed to the Big East for football – South Florida, Cincinnati and Louisville – will also stay put for the 2004 season.

The complete picture for SU’s 2004 football schedule, though, remains cloudy. Syracuse drew the unlucky break to be the lone Big East team that had both Tech and Miami on its home schedule. Currently, Syracuse has four home games and five road games on its 2004 schedule, including non-conference games against Virginia and Florida State. The Orangemen need 11 games total and at least five home games.

To make matters even tougher, Syracuse had Connecticut scheduled years ago as a non-conference opponent. But because of the conference-jumping, UConn joined the Big East a year early.

Those factors have made Edson’s job – which usually consists of casually filling SU’s schedule – a constant string of phone calls and wishing.

‘It’s been a struggle, candidly,’ Edson said. ‘To start to look for teams inside of a year, this late in the game, you’re talking a limited pool of possibilities.’

Several elite teams – including co-national champions Louisiana State and Southern California and Bowl Championship Series runner-up Oklahoma – have openly stated they are looking to schedule more games. Problem is, those teams, like most others still searching to flush out their schedule desire only home games.

That’s something Syracuse can’t agree to. Division I-A football teams, by NCAA rule, must play at least five home games against other I-A teams.

Typically, Syracuse likes to play at least six homes games. This season, the Orangemen played seven. For financial and competitive reasons, the maximum number of home games is obviously desirable.

‘Fiscally we rely on the financial benefits of six home games,’ Edson said. ‘It’s not just us. The university and the community do as well. Merchants on Marshall Street count on six home games.’

But now, after speaking with 60 to 80 schools, Edson is resigned to the fact that Syracuse will likely play only five games in the Carrier Dome next year against six road games.

‘We’ve had nobody bite on it to come here and play in the Dome,’ Edson said.

In order to tack on another home game, Edson needs to be creative and ‘swap’ games with other teams. To swap with a team, Syracuse needs to pick a game and make a deal with both teams.

Say, for example, State is playing at Tech. SU offers State to come to Syracuse instead of playing at Tech, promising Tech that it will play at Tech’s home field in place of State. See how convoluted Edson’s job has become?

‘We had to sit down for numerous hours reviewing schedules, seeing if there’s a hole we might be able to sneak into,’ Edson said. ‘Usually it’s not as complicated.’

Edson has faced difficult situations before. Before the 2002 season, East Carolina backed out of a date at the Dome during the summer. Syracuse had to scramble, but was able to fill the vacancy with I-AA Rhode Island.

That problem was tough to solve. But it’s an ant hill compared to the Everest that Edson faces now.

‘It’s all been out of whack,’ Edson said. ‘I thought East Carolina a couple years ago was as difficult as it was going to get. But at least then we had an out. A I-AA team now is not even a safety net.’

Despite the challenges, the news of BC and the Conference USA teams definitely staying put added some stability to SU’s situation, which resulted in enhanced discussion with other teams.

Edson declined to name possible specific opponents, but he said he expects to have the toughest schedule he’s ever made set within about two weeks.

‘We had some pretty good feedback (Tuesday),’ Edson said. ‘We can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.’

Published on January 13, 2004 at 12:00 pm