Syracuse and SMU meeting on the gridiron is the ultimate fever dream of modern conference realignment. It is a matchup that serves as a grim reminder that college football stopped being about regional rivalries and started being about airline miles and television market shares. If you were looking for a history of intense, storied animosity between the Orange and the Mustangs, you would be looking for a long time.

These programs share about as much natural common ground as a snowy Syracuse sidewalk and a Dallas country club. - The ACC expanded to include SMU despite it being nowhere near the Atlantic coast. - Syracuse has become the unlikely travel partner for a program that once paid millions to get out of the doldrums of the post-Death Penalty era.

- Both schools are essentially hoping that TV revenue checks are worth the absolute exhaustion of their student-athletes. This game is the pinnacle of the mid-tier conference struggle. SMU brings the flashy, nouveau-riche energy of a program that bought its way back into the spotlight.

Syracuse brings the stubborn, grit-your-teeth-and-hope-for-an-upset energy of a team that has been doing more with less for far too long. Analysts claim this is a clash of cultures, but it is actually a clash of administrative desperation. Syracuse needs to stay relevant in a dying ecosystem, while SMU is playing a high-stakes game of keeping the boosters happy at any cost.

It is difficult to view this as anything other than a logistical nightmare wrapped in a broadcast package. The players are flying thousands of miles to play in a stadium that feels like a neutral site for both sides. Fans are left to wonder if the sport is even recognizable anymore.

When you trade tradition for a bigger piece of the streaming pie, you inevitably end up with these sterile, manufactured rivalries that nobody asked for. Are you ready for the next iteration of conference chaos where we eventually see an ACC title game played in a parking lot in Anchorage? Stick around as we break down which school will be the first to realize the travel budget has officially ruined their season.