I lived in Syracuse for about 13 years. That was about 13 too many. I had some good friends and learned some good things, but my best friends fled the city long before I did. The place is rust belt decadence. Last time I passed through the place, it was a typical late winter day. Dirty snow littered with every bit of garbage and dog ***** dropped since the first snow in November. Lots of guys on street corners who clearly had no place to go, i.e. no job except maybe dealing. Downtown was boarded up. ****, I wish that I had gone straight to Miami or California instead of spending those years in Syracuse.
And then there is Orange football. Even young people who were not even born until the 1970s and 1980s think SU is the football power of the Jim Brown/Ernie Davis era. (By the way, did you know that Jim Brown originally went to SU on a lacrosse scholarship?) Even the Floyd Little era was only a weak attempt to recreate the glory days of Jim Brown. And then, there were the claims that Coach Ben What's-His-Name (some long German name) had racist attitudes about his players. That really spelled the end of SU football. By the end of the 1970s, Joe Pa (yes, the guy who looked the other way as Jerry took showers with children - kinda makes anything at Miami seem like child's play [no pun intended] - those sanctimonious Nittany Lions should take a close look in the mirror) decided that SU was no longer relevant and ended the annual game. The Carrier Dome, named after a company that closed up shop in Syracuse at the end of the 20th century and left the city without a few thousand jobs, was built in a cramped part of the university campus, within eyesight of the ugly, dirty Interstate Highway 81 that turned inner-city communities into isolated, i.e. segregated slums. Nice move for a liberal northern city! Originally intended only for football, someone got the bright idea of moving basketball from the intimate Manley Field House (an ECAC era facility) to the gigantic Dome. Forget SU football, basketball now ruled.
Moral of the story? Syracuse is a decaying, rustbelt city with crappy weather and a population living in the past. Good NFL players sometimes emerge from SU, like Dwight Freeney, Marvin Harrison, Art Monk, Donovan McNabb, and Daryl Johnston. However, their record of sending players to the NFL is nowhere near UM's success. Five NCs since 1980 for UM. What has SU won since 1959? I suppose their anger at Miami the city and UM the football program are just a result of the depressing environment in which they live.