Last week, the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) gave fans a portion of the upcoming 2026-27 men's basketball schedule. While we don't know when or at what times league games will be played, we now know who and where the Syracuse men's basketball team will be playing under first-year head coach Gerry McNamara. 

It's a fun schedule for fans that features the likes of Duke, North Carolina, Louisville and Virginia coming to the JMA Wireless Dome. With Virginia, that means that the home crowd will get to see former head coach Adrian Autry again, as he's now on staff with the Cavaliers.

But there are some oddities with the schedule as well. For instance, Syracuse is playing Pittsburgh and Stanford twice, but isn't playing North Carolina State at all. Why?

Let's examine.

In May of 2025, the conference shifted its schedule from 20 games down to 18, which was designed to make room for teams to play more meaningful non-league games. Under the 20-game format, there was room to play every single league foe.

In order to preserve longstanding rivalries, the league has given each team a "primary pair," that ensures a home-and-home matchup with that rival. This is why we are able to get UNC-Duke each season at both locations.

Pitt is listed as Syracuse's "primary" pair, which is the reason why the Orange and Panthers are playing each other twice every season. That should be a good thing for the Orange, as Pitt finished just 5-13 in the conference last season. However, they did beat Syracuse 71-69 in overtime in the final regular season game of the year.

Those matchups will be interesting this season, as former Syracuse point guard Naithan George is now playing for Pitt.

Rather than play every team once and one team twice, each school is given a non-primary pair that rotates every year. This year, Syracuse will be playing Stanford twice, but as a result, they won't be playing North Carolina State at all.

Why is this the policy? It's hard to tell, but it could be so that marquee programs get a rotating opportunity to play other marquee programs twice, creating better NCAA Tournament resume opportunities.

The league would likely prefer to have years where Duke plays Virginia or Louisville twice, as opposed to playing Boston College or Pitt every single year.

Just eight days after seeing its season end in the NCAA lacrosse semifinals, the Syracuse men's lacrosse team has already started reloading.

As noted by Syracuse television reporter Ashley Wenskoski, the Orange have gotten a commitment from Marcellus High School midfielder Nick Rayfield. Rayfield is a four-star recruit and the 45th overall recruit in the class of 2026, meaning he will be on SU's roster next season.

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