Don’t book your flight to West Lafayette, Ind., just yet.

A post made Monday on Purdue’s official athletics site stated that the Syracuse football team might play a Sept. 4 road game at Purdue to help fill out SU’s depleted schedule. Under that scenario, Syracuse would travel to West Lafayette and play against Purdue. Cincinnati, which was originally scheduled to play Purdue, would instead travel to the Carrier Dome to play Syracuse.

But SU Associate Director of Athletics Rob Edson said last night that the arrangement is not yet close to being a done deal. Though discussions have occurred, several issues still need to be ironed out, so much so that the Purdue-Cincinnati swap can’t even be called the most likely solution, Edson said.

‘No situation as of now could be categorized as most likely,’ Edson said. ‘If it were as easy as us and Cincinnati and Purdue, it would have already happened. It involves other things, like our game against Virginia.’

Syracuse is already scheduled to play at Virginia on Sept. 4, and Purdue going through with the deal is contingent on playing its home game with Syracuse on Sept. 4. If the deal goes through, SU’s game against Virginia would be moved to another date. The Boilermakers currently are scheduled to play all 11 of their games in a row, and a Sept. 4 date would alleviate that problem by giving Purdue an off week between its first and second games.

‘We don’t have a signed agreement, but discussions are ongoing,’ Purdue Athletics Director Morgan Burke said on Purdue’s website. ‘With the changing landscape in the Big East Conference, Syracuse is looking to modify its schedule, and Cincinnati does not object to playing there as opposed to West Lafayette. At the same time, we feel playing on Sept. 4 rather than Sept. 18 would be advantageous for us. So it’s a win-win-win situation.’

Purdue likely made the information public prematurely to alert hardcore Boilermaker fans not to make plans for Labor Day weekend, Edson said.

‘We certainly would prefer it hadn’t become public, but we understand they had to let their public know about a possibility,’ Edson said. ‘They’re just telling their fans, ‘Hey, look, this could happen, so don’t make plans for Labor Day.’ ‘

Syracuse is booked for Labor Day, but SU could use a couple more dates to fill up its calendar, too.

To solve SU’s problem – filling the spots in its schedule left when Virginia Tech and Miami bolted for the Atlantic Coast Conference – Edson has whittled down SU’s options to three or four. The most viable of those options are swaps like the one outlined on Purdue’s website.

If a move becomes official, Syracuse will have five home games and six away games. That’s anything but ideal – Edson called it a ‘mess’ – but Edson said two weeks ago that would be the only way for Syracuse to fill an 11-game schedule under NCAA regulations.

Syracuse is still in talks with teams from Bowl Championship Series conferences and non-BCS conferences to fill their schedule’s vacancies and those holes should be filled soon. The search includes all areas of the country.

‘There’s a light at the end of the tunnel,’ Edson said. ‘I would assume by end of next week we should be in good shape.’

A few things won’t be in SU’s final plans: Trading a home game this year for an away in the future or playing a Division I-AA team. This year, Edson is resigned to playing five home games and six away games but desperately wants to avoid that in the future.

Though several I-AA teams have offered to solve SU’s problem, Edson feels that might further the problem rather than create a solution.

‘It’s our goal and hope that we can stay away from that,’ Edson said. ‘We don’t see that as a viable option in Central New York. It’s not standard during regular situations, let alone in a crisis.’

Published on January 28, 2004 at 12:00 pm