COME SEE YOUR SYRACUSE ORANGE(MEN) FOOTBALL TEAM AND GET TICKETS TO SEE KENNY CHESNEY!

This will likely be the extent of the 'Cuse Football fanbase 20 years from now. Also, "Poop on Pitt" is perhaps the greatest shirt I have ever seen.
It's been a rough couple of years for the Syracuse Football squad. Since McNabb left, the team has been horribly mismanaged, losing the likes of Colt Brennan, Brian Leonard, Mike Hart and Ray Rice (Leonard didn't go to 'Cuse because Paul Pasqualoni was the coach and Ray Rice dropped his commitment to 'Cuse after Paul Pasqualoni left) due to recruiting snafus. The attendance for 'Cuse basketball games is higher than football and despite the renewed enthusiasm infused in the program with USC's Daryl Gross as the cheerleader Athletic Director and uber-enthused cheerleader Head Coach Greg Robinson, the program hasn't really gained any traction or scored any major recruiting coups. The best players from NY (Mike Paulus, Craig Cooper, John Elliott and Bo Harris) are still going to other programs (though to be fair 'Cuse did score minor coups in getting a commitment out of Jermaine Pierce and stealing Bud Tribbey from VT) and other than their fairly solid RB crew, none of the other positions where players were selected as "projects" have really panned out. You could argue that some of that is the result of a poor coaching staff and some of it is due to the fact that the keys to the assistant coaching staff offices have changed hands more times than the Gaza Strip. But I digress....

Anyhoo.... with all that in mind, I found it rather humrous that in an effort to entice more season ticket purchases this year, Gross has proposed a better branding of the packages as well as a cross-promotion with the Great New York State Fair:

"Our theme (for the 2007 season) is 'Sudden Impact.' We're playing off the youth of the team. We're kind of marketing those kids as newcomers. Last year, we were marketing Greg as a 'Braveheart,' passionate guy. While fixing this thing, just get on his bandwagon and you'll see it grow. Now we've got a few stars here that we can market and are fun to watch. Guys like Michael Williams and Taj (Smith) are nice, bookend receivers. That's not even talking about (Rice) Moss and some of the steady players. We have something to market. There's something to come see."

Excuse me while I vomit. The team is being marketed like a minor league baseball team. If I were Gross, I would continue marketing the team along the lines of the Dollar Store, like his senior associate AD is:

"Daryl is confident it's the lowest price in the country for a BCS school," said Pat Campbell, senior associate athletics director.

Nice. That's more like it. "It may not be good football, but dang is it cheap!" And if that doesn't work, well they've got an even more enticing deal for you:

The school just announced a new incentive - it's providing two admission tickets to the New York State Fair with the purchase of season tickets for football.

Now that's a deal. It may suck to watch 'Cuse get killed at home 7 times this year, but it won't suck to watch Kenny Chesney or Hinder and Buckcherry rock the stage while eating a deep fried snickers and corn dog.* Actually, that would kind of suck too.

*I love the New York State Fair and am only making fun of it because it makes for good post fodder. I may actually attend to watch Poison and Ratt. If I lived in Syracuse, I would have season tickets and would get the two tickets to the New York State Fair.