Syracuse will face South Florida in Boca Raton Bowl

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After a 35-31 win over Wake Forest moved Syracuse to 6-6, reaching the mark for bowl eligibility, Syracuse has accepted an invitation to play in the Boca Raton Bowl against South Florida on Dec. 21. Action Network’s Brett McMurphy was the first to report the news. It’s the first time the Orange have played in the Boca Raton Bowl and 28th overall in program history.

This will mark the second-straight season the Orange have made a bowl game, doing so for the first time since 2012-13 under Doug Marrone when Syracuse went to the Pinstripe Bowl before the Texas Bowl.

This will be the first time since 2016 that Syracuse will play South Florida, when the Bulls put up 28 unanswered points in the second quarter to beat the Orange. The 2023 season, one that started with a promising 4-0 record against nonconference opponents, bottomed out once Syracuse entered Atlantic Coast Conference play. Following a 31-22 loss at Georgia Tech in the penultimate week of the season, Syracuse fired eighth-year head coach Dino Babers and named Nunzio Campanile as the interim. Three of Babers’ teams at Syracuse ended up making it to a bowl game.

It’s unclear if new head coach Fran Brown will be on the sidelines for the game. Georgia, where he served as the defensive backs coach, will play Florida State in the Orange Bowl on Dec. 30.