ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett

Syracuse has backed out of a planned home-and-home series with Virginia Tech in 2010 and 2011. The story was first reported by WTVR in Richmond, Va., and later confirmed by Syracuse.com.

"With respect to Virginia Tech, we have mutually agreed not to play our series in 2010 and 2011 so that each of us may pursue other opportunities that are in the best interests of our respective programs at this time," Orange senior associate athletic director Rob Edson told the Web site.

The Hokies are apparently filling the holes left by Syracuse with Boise State.

You hate to see teams back out of deals, especially when they give other schools little time to find replacements. And Syracuse has a history with former Big East member Virginia Tech, which would have made for a fine reunion.

But the bottom line is that Syracuse has scheduled too aggressively lately. Yes, the Orange have always tried to play a national nonconference slate. But the program is down and needs rebuilding, and the best way to do that is to scale things back a little bit on the schedule and give Doug Marrone a chance to get some wins and confidence for his players.

Syracuse is already scheduled to play Boston College and go to Washington in 2010. There was no need to play a team as good as Virginia Tech as well.

And in 2011, the Orange have USC and Wake Forest on the docket. Adding a trip to Blacksburg that year would just be masochism.

Syracuse opens this year with Minnesota, at Penn State and Northwestern in its first three weeks. No one else is scheduling like that in the Big East, and it's unnecessarily difficult for a struggling program.