Syracuse University football has officially played its last Big East Conference game.
And it leaves the conference with a victory.
Syracuse held off Temple- a team in its second stint in the embattled league- 38-20 on Friday to finish the 2012 regular season.
With the win, Syracuse finishes the season with a 7-5 record and a bowl game in its future. That's an idea that seemed almost unattainable when Syracuse was 2-4 after a loss to Rutgers a little over a month ago.
Syracuse finishes with a 5-2 Big East record. It can't win the league because of tiebreakers, but, it can finish second and earn a desirable bowl spot in Orlando potentially for the Russell Athletic Bowl on December 28.
The other bowl options include the Belk Bowl (December 27th) and the Pinstripe Bowl (December 29).
Coincidentally, the win over Temple secures the Orange with an above .500 record in conference play since 1991 at 76-75. SU was dominant at times in its 22 Big East seasons, but a 3-25 conference mark during the Greg Robinson era certainly hurts those numbers.
Doug Marrone is 11-17 in four Big East seasons after a 5-2 mark this year.
Alec Lemon had 74 receiving yards and Jerome Smith rushed for 96 yards. Both went over the 1,000 mark on the season in their respective statistics giving SU its first combination of a 1,000 yard back and 1,000 yard receiver since Rob Moore and Michael Owens did it in 1989.
Ryan Nassib passed for 216 yards with 1 touchdown and no interceptions to finish with 24 TD passes and just 9 interceptions on the year.
Syracuse earned an unexpected big day from Adonis Ameen-Moore, who rushed for 58 yards and two touchdowns. Moore had 55 yards on the entire season heading into today.
Syracuse will now wait for its bowl fate over the next 10-14 days, in all likelihood.
