Syracuse Orange football opens as nine point underdogs to Clemson

The Syracuse Orange are on to 4-0 on the young season, and the Clemson Tigers are coming to town this weekend. After making some adjustments at the half, the Orange ran away with a 29-16 victory against Army to remain undefeated closing out their non-conference schedule. For better or worse, the ACC slate starts right off with a bang, as they host Clemson this week.

It seems that the oddsmakers at DraftKings Sportsbook see the Orange as a two score underdog, opening the line at Syracuse +9 for the week. The over/under line is set at 51.5. Syracuse is coming off the first time this season where they didn’t beat the house, narrowly missing the 13.5 point spread that was the consensus for them against Army. They’ve also missed the over both of the last two weeks, coming in five points under this week, after also hitting the under against Purdue.

Uncharacteristically, the Tigers are 2-2 on the season, with an opening week loss to Duke, and a hard fought battle this week, falling to the Florida State Seminoles in overtime, 31-24. This will be one of the few times, if not the first, that the Orange face Clemson in ACC play where the Tigers aren’t ranked, falling out of the polls earlier this year. On the year, Clemson is 1-3 against the spread and hit the over three out of four games.

The Orange are 2-9 all time against Clemson, with the lone wins being in the 1995 Gator Bowl and that fateful Friday night in 2017. Since Syracuse joined the ACC they are 1-9 against the Tigers, though have played them tighter than expected in many of the matchups. Since 2016, Syracuse has beat the spread five out of seven matchups, and the under has hit six of seven matchups, including last season’s 27-21 Clemson victory.