The Big East Conference portion of the Syracuse men's basketball schedule was announced by the league Thursday.

The Orange's conference itinerary includes 18 games and features home-and-home series with Georgetown, Rutgers and Villanova.

The Big East schedule format was altered for this season to allow for each team to play the rest of the conference at least once.

In addition to Syracuse's two-game sets, the Orange will host Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Notre Dame, Seton Hall, and West Virginia. The road slate has Connecticut, Marquette, Pittsburgh, Providence, St. John's, and USF on it.

The Big East is coming off a stellar 2007-08 campaign that saw eight league members - Connecticut, Georgetown, Louisville, Marquette, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Villanova and West Virginia - make the NCAA Tournament.

Louisville reached the NCAA Elite Eight. Syracuse represented the conference in the NIT.

Syracuse has seven conference games that will be televised by ESPN and one each by ESPN2 and CBS.

Syracuse Big East basketball schedule

Date Opponent Time TV

Dec. 30 SETON HALL TBA TBA

Jan. 2 South Florida 8:30 p.m. ESPN

Jan. 7 DEPAUL TBA TBA

Jan. 10 at Rutgers TBA TBA

Jan. 14 at Georgetown 7 p.m. ESPN2

Jan. 17 NOTRE DAME Noon ESPN

Jan. 19 at Pittsburgh 7 p.m. ESPN

Jan. 25 LOUISVILLE TBA TBA

Jan. 28 at Providence TBA TBA

Feb. 4 WEST VIRGINIA 7 p.m. ESPN

Feb. 7 at Villanova Noon ESPN

Feb. 11 at Connecticut TBA ESPN

Feb. 14 GEORGETOWN Noon ESPN

Feb. 22 VILLANOVA 1 p.m. CBS

Feb. 24 at St. John's TBA TBA

Mar. 1 CINCINNATI TBA TBA

Mar. 3 RUTGERS TBA TBA

Mar. 7 at Marquette TBA TBA