Syracuse Athletics launches new, fan-based competition

Sep 9, 2023; Syracuse, New York, USA; Syracuse Orange fans wave t-shirts during the first half against the Western Michigan Broncos at the JMA Wireless Dome. Mandatory Credit: Rich Barnes-Imagn Images

Syracuse University Athletics is rolling out a unique contest aimed at engaging fans, raising money for Syracuse Orange sports, and crowning the best Orange fan on Earth.

On Tuesday Syracuse launched the “Orange Nation #1 Fan Challenge.” Broadly speaking, the competition encourages fans to sign up and boost their point total through answering trivia, donating directly to Syracuse Athletics, and encouraging others to do the same.

Here’s how this event, which Syracuse is describing as a “first-of-its-kind” fan competition, works.

Anyone can sign up for free. After signing up, participants can earn points through three methods, according to Syracuse Athletics:

1. Answering questions, consisting of “sports history and fun athletes challenges.”
2. Donating directly to SUA. Every dollar given equals a bonus point.
3. After signing up, fans can also send a personal competition invite/link to others. Money donated by someone through this link will also count as bonus points.

Besides being crowned as the #1 Orange fan out there, the winner of the challenge will also get season tickets to Syracuse football, along with men’s and women’s lacrosse.

The announcement is quite notable, especially given new Syracuse Athletic Director Bryan Blair’s vision of “modernizing” the Syracuse athletic department.

Part of that definitely includes directly engaging with fans and finding new, creative ways to raise money. While this will likely account for a small portion of the vision, it’s an incentive-based effort where fans of all kinds, in theory, can participate.

In other words, it’s a small step in the right direction and in the ballpark of coming up with different ways to get the fanbase involved and giving them a motivation to do so, all under one unified goal.

The Orange Nation #1 Fan Challenge runs through May 14.

(Writer’s note: If this competition was solely based on Riley Dixon-based trivia, Nunes Nation definitely takes the cake.)