The loss of WVU from the football schedule after over 50 continuous years, combined with the impending wholesale change of annual football opponents for the second time in less than ten years, had me thinking about SU's schedule through the years. I checked out their schedules and opponents on http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com and calculated the seven most frequent opponents by decade (including ties):

1890-1899: Rochester (12 games/10 seasons), Syracuse Athletic Association (19/9), Cornell (10/9), St. John's Military Academy (12/7), Union (7/6), Colgate (6/6), Hamilton (6/5)

1900-1909: Yale (8), Colgate (7), Rochester (5), Hamilton (5), Army (5), Cortland (5), Brown (4), Carlisle (4), Clarkson (4), Hobart (4), Niagara (4), Williams (4)

1910-1919: Colgate (8), Michigan (8), Hobart (8), Rochester (6), Carlisle (5), Brown (4), Dartmouth (4), Princeton (4), Rutgers (4)

1920-1929: Colgate (10), Hobart (10), Penn State (8), Columbia (6), Pittsburgh (6), William & Mary (6), Niagara (5), Johns Hopkins (5)

1930-1939: Colgate (10), Penn State (10), Columbia (9), Clarkson (8), Cornell (7), Michigan St. (6), Maryland (5), Ohio Wesleyan (5)

1940-1949: Colgate (9), Penn State (9), Cornell (9), Columbia (6), Holy Cross (6), Temple (6), Boston University (4)

1950-1959: Colgate (10), Penn State (10), Boston University (10), Holy Cross (9), Cornell (7), Fordham (5), Pittsburgh (5), West Virginia (5)

1960-1969: Penn State (10), Pittsburgh (10), West Virginia (10), Holy Cross (9), Boston College (8), Navy (6), Maryland (6)

1970-1979: Penn State (10), Pittsburgh (10), West Virginia (10), Navy (10), Boston College (9), Maryland (9), Miami (6)

1980-1989: Penn State (10), Pittsburgh (10), West Virginia (10), Navy (10), Boston College (10), Rutgers (10), Temple (8)

1990-1999: Pittsburgh (10), West Virginia (10), Boston College (10), Rutgers (10), Temple (10), Miami (9), Virginia Tech (8)

2000-2009: Pittsburgh (10), West Virginia (10), Rutgers (10), Cincinnati (7), Louisville (6), Connecticut (6), Boston College (5), Temple (5), South Florida (5)

2010-2019 (projected): Pittsburgh (10), Boston College (8), Wake Forest (8), Maryland (7), Clemson (7), Florida State (7), North Carolina State (7)

Through the years, for whatever reason, SU has gravitated toward having 7 core annual/regular opponents, even as an independent. Immediately prior to the formation of the Big East, these opponents had been fellow eastern independents PSU, Pitt, WVU, BC, Rutgers, Temple and Navy. With the formation of the Big East, PSU and Navy were basically replaced by Miami and Va. Tech.

Interesting things that I did not know:

- BC essentially replaced Boston University as an annual in 1961. BU had been an annual from 1948-1960.
- SU played an annual with Michigan for around 10 years when Michigan withdrew from the Big Ten for a period.
- 1955 was a landmark year, when SU began regular series with Pitt, WVU and Maryland, effectively replacing Fordham, Temple and Cornell. (Maryland didn't become an annual, though, until 1965).
- Navy became a schedule regular beginning in 1962 (annual beginning in 1965) following the cancellation of the Colgate series.
- Miami became a regular on the SU schedule of the '70's after the Holy Cross series ended.