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Syracuse men’s basketball: a look at the Orange’s ACC schedule for 2025-26 by current projections

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NCAA Basketball: Syracuse at California
Robert Edwards-Imagn Images

Some early data on the path that lies ahead in the All-Coast Conference.

Fans of the Syracuse Orange recently learned who the program will be facing in the ACC for the upcoming season.

As part of a new 18-game conference schedule format, Syracuse will play both North Carolina and Pittsburgh home and away in 2024-25. Home games will be against California, Clemson, Florida State, Miami, Notre Dame, SMU and Virginia Tech. The Orange will travel to face Boston College, Duke, Georgia Tech, Louisville, NC State, Virginia and Wake Forest.

Teams above are listed just in alphabetical order. More details for Syracuse’s ACC schedule, including when the Orange play who, will be announced in September.

That being said, there are some projections out there to get a better sense at where the ACC projects right now overall, as well as how the Orange (to date) match up on paper against those looming conference opponents. It’s obviously still early before the start of the year, but there is some useful takeaways in the numbers.

Here are the major ones:

Bart Torvik

Bart Torvik’s projections for Syracuse and the rest of the conference show both good and potentially concerning news.

Here is the full list of all 18 team ACC teams:

Syracuse ranks right in the middle at No. 9 in the ACC and No. 64 overall. Duke, North Carolina, Louisville, NC State and SMU are your current top-five, per Bart Torvik. The Orange are not that far away from the next three teams above them, which are Clemson (No 49), Virginia (No. 51) and Miami (No. 58).

That being said, there is also a pretty big tier of teams sitting between the mid-50s and mid-80s in these rankings. After Syracuse, there’s Notre Dame (No. 66), Pittsburgh (No. 74), Wake Forest (No. 78), Virginia Tech (No. 80), Florida State (No. 81), California (No. 84) and Georgia Tech (No. 86).

Bart Torvik currently thinks very highly of Syracuse’s offense, which ranks No. 28 overall in projected adjusted offensive efficiency. That’s good for fifth-best in the ACC, only trailing Duke (No. 6), Louisville (No. 7), North Carolina (No. 17) and NC State (No. 26).

On the defensive side, there’s a bigger drop in the numbers. Syracuse ranks No. 118 in adjusted defensive efficiency. The Orange are just one of four ACC schools who rank outside the top-100 in that category. Syracuse’s current projection sits second-worst in the conference, only ahead of Boston College who are at No. 137.

Syracuse v Florida State
Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images

Using Bart Torvik’s current overall projections, Syracuse’s schedule breaks down as follows:

  • Top-10 in Bart Torvik: Duke (road)
  • No. 11 to No. 25 in Bart Torvik: North Carolina (home and road), Louisville (road)
  • No. 26 to No. 50 in Bart Torvik: NC State (road), SMU (home), Clemson (home)
  • No. 51 to No. 74 in Bart Torvik: Virginia (road), Miami (home), Notre Dame (home), Pittsburgh (home and road)
  • No. 75 to No. 99 in Bart Torvik: Wake Forest (road), Virginia Tech (home), Florida State (home), California (home), Georgia Tech (road)
  • No. 100 or lower in Bart Torvik: Boston College (road)

(Note: Stanford is the one opponent that Syracuse will not have to face in its conference schedule for this year)

ESPN’s Bracketology

ESPN’s most recent bracketology update sees Syracuse facing conference opponents projected to be in the hunt to make the 2026 NCAA Tournament in exactly half of its 18 ACC games.

The full list:

  • Duke (road): No. 1 seed
  • North Carolina (home and road): No. 5 seed
  • Louisville (road): No. 6 seed
  • Miami (home): Last Four Byes
  • SMU (home): Last Four In
  • NC State (road): Last Four In
  • Clemson (home): Next Four Out
  • Virginia (road): Next Four Out
  • Notre Dame (home): Next Four Out

In theory, out of Syracuse’s 18 conference games in 2025-26, 10 will be against programs that are at least being considered by this bracketology update to be in tournament territory.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL: DEC 31 Wake Forest at Syracuse
Photo by Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

That being said, of those 10 games, six will be against teams projected right now on the tournament bubble.

FanDuel: National Championship Winner

For a little bit of fun, here’s the current odds among the ACC teams to win the 2026 NCAA Championship, according to FanDuel:

  1. Duke: +1100
  2. Louisville: +1700
  3. North Carolina: +4000
  4. NC State: +6000
  5. Virginia: +8000
  6. Miami: +10,000
  7. Syracuse: +15,000
  8. SMU: +15,000
  9. Clemson: +20,000
  10. Notre Dame: +20,000
  11. Virginia Tech: +20,000
  12. Wake Forest: +20,000
  13. Pittsburgh: +30,000
  14. California: +30,000
  15. Stanford: +30,000
  16. Florida State: +30,000
  17. Georgia Tech: +30,000
  18. Boston College: +50,000

Now it’s your turn: did any of the numbers jump out to you regarding the Orange?