A chill ran down Mark Jackson’s spine Saturday. He’s experienced football in a collection of loud events throughout his career, from a national championship to legendary rivalries. Jackson’s attended games in the Rose Bowl and watched the top-ranked team in the Los Angeles Coliseum. He’s witnessed football around the NFL and in some of college football’s historically ear-splitting venues. But Jackson said he’s never heard a crowd as loud as the Carrier Dome’s during the fourth quarter of Syracuse’s 27-24 loss to Virginia.

Despite the final result, there was electricity in the building, a ‘big-game’ atmosphere only generated when SU hosts a high-profile opponent. It’s the way the Carrier Dome felt last season when Florida State visited and in 2003 when Notre Dame came to campus.

According to Jackson, Syracuse’s executive senior associate athletics directors, Orange fans should expect that excitement to continue each season.

‘Without a doubt, this is only going to get better and better,’ Jackson said. ‘It goes down to our fundamental philosophy that in order to be the best, you have to beat the best. Syracuse’s name needs to match the (opposing) name, and that’s what Syracuse is about: Playing the top echelon.’

No team, aside from perhaps the independent Irish, loads its schedule with 11 marquee foes. But for fans, big games circled on the schedule create weeks of excitement and epitomize the lore of college football.

It begs the question: Why aren’t there more? Why are students and season-ticket holders subjected to the Western Idaho State A&M’s of college football, or whatever concoction of directions, states and letters athletic directors can find?

The easy answer is an easy win. The conference schedule for high-profile programs are crowded with difficult rivalry games and bouts with prospective national title contenders. In order to prepare for those difficult games – and perhaps soften the blow of a possible loss – lesser opponents are scheduled rather than duels like Saturday.

‘From a fan standpoint, I love these match-ups. You get to see teams you don’t normally see play; you go to stadiums and places you don’t normally go. But that’s just from a fan’s perspective,’ Virginia fan Victor Penzer said at the SU-UVa game. ‘I think sometimes these road trips aren’t great if you have a real hard conference schedule.’

The conference is the intangible in any schedule. Before conference affiliations, high-profile teams played each other regularly. As late as 1991, both Florida State and Penn State – two of the most visible college football programs – were independent. Without a conference schedule, they were able to play around the country without any required games.

Now there are only four independent programs among the 119 Division I-A teams. Even more telling is the power disparity – every team in the Top 25 except Louisville and Notre Dame are from the Southeastern Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-10. Consequently, they all beat each other up during conference play. Because one of the high-profile teams has to lose in any match-up, it often makes sense to warm up against ‘cupcakes.’

That’s not the approach the Big East took this season.

Syracuse plays Florida State in two weeks and Notre Dame in November. Pittsburgh already played Notre Dame and Nebraska. Both Cincinnati and South Florida played Penn State and the Bulls visit Miami later this season. West Virginia played Maryland last weekend and will play Virginia Tech awaits on the first weekend in October.

‘The interest you saw in the inter-conference battles is great,’ West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez said. ‘Everybody in the Big East is looking at their schedule, and anytime you can grab that national interest for your program and your league, it’s all positive.’

Not all programs feel that way, though. Connecticut lost to No. 15 Georgia Tech last weekend. The Huskies entered the game 2-0, with wins over Buffalo and Liberty. While some criticized UConn head coach Randy Edsall for his easy openers, Edsall advised critics to learn the whole story.

‘Our schedule was made four or five years ago,’ Edsall said. ‘If you look around the country, everyone’s playing I-AA teams. We scheduled these games back in 2000 and 2001 when the Big East was going to have Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College.’

Edsall brings up a good point – the schedules are made so far in advance that it’s tough to project the prospects of your team or your opponent. SU has non-conference battles scheduled through 2012, with match-ups against high-profile programs like Virginia Tech, Penn State, Notre Dame and Iowa. Jackson said SU’s in continued discussions with other high-profile schools from coast-to-coast, including Texas and Washington.

The biggest NCAA game this season was Sept. 10’s made-for-television match-up between then-No. 2 Texas and then-No. 4 Ohio State. Cincinnati head coach Mark Dantonio said the game was scheduled while he was still a defensive coordinator with Ohio State, and he recruited with the knowledge that the Buckeyes would host the Longhorns in 2005.

He alludes to another byproduct of big games: They can serve as terrific recruiting tools. The national attention generated from Virginia’s visit on Saturday or the Oct. 1 game at Florida State is a way to put Syracuse in the living room of prospective recruits. But more immediately, the high-profile games add a national respectability that could prove pivotal come January.

Jackson, who formerly worked at Southern California, spoke about USC’s 2002 season, when their only losses came to Kansas State and Washington State – both top 10 teams. The Trojans were 9-2, but because their setbacks were to top-caliber programs, they were able to land a spot in the Orange Bowl, where they beat Iowa and garnered momentum for future back-to-back national championships.

‘We don’t look at any game (thinking) we have a greater chance of losing,’ Jackson said. ‘And sometimes a top-level team lends a lot more credit. That’s an approach we took at USC, and that’s an approach we’re taking here.’

Published on September 19, 2005 at 12:00 pm