Toronto Game Brings Memories of Missed International Bowl Opportunities

It may have taken 21 years, but Syracuse will finally get to play in Toronto. Syracuse and Wake Forest will kick off the 2027 season at BMO Field, home of the Toronto Argonauts and Toronto FC to kick off the 2027 season. While neither school has ever played in Toronto, Syracuse had multiple opportunities to do so in the mid-to-late 2000s.

The Big East sent its fifth bowl team to Toronto's International Bowl from 2006 to 2009. Syracuse would have been an ideal selection for the young bowl throughout its four-year lifetime. The school is just a 4.5-hour drive from Toronto and has many alumni near New York City, the country's busiest travel hub.

Unfortunately for the International Bowl, Syracuse had one of its worst stretches in the program's history during the International Bowl's existence. The Orange went a combined 13-35 from 2006-2009 with an embarrassing 4-24 mark in Big East play. Their best record in that four-year stretch was a pair of 4-8 campaigns in 2006 and 2009.

Syracuse looked bound to represent the Big East in the International Bowl's inaugural year with a 3-2 start that included wins over Illinois, Miami (OH), and Wyoming. However, the Orange lost six of their final seven games to finish 3-9. This is the closest to an International Bowl appearance that the Orange ever got.

Syracuse’s absence from the 2009 International Bowl is particularly lamentable. While Buffalo was on its way to winning the MAC and making its first bowl ever, the Orange went 3-9. Buffalo would play in the International Bowl against UConn.

Had Syracuse been able to become bowl-eligible and play in the International Bowl, it would have easily been the most consequential game in the history of the Syracuse-Buffalo series. The two schools have met just eight times, including just four times since William McKinley was president.

Now, nearly twenty years after the last International Bowl, Syracuse will finally get to play in Toronto, but in a different conference. While Big East nostalgia will be present to some degree, Orange fans hope their team will not revert to those late-2000s doldrums in their 2027 season opener.