STATE COLLEGE, Pa., June 17, 2002 - Penn State and Syracuse, who've met 68 times since 1922, will renew their football series in 2008-09, Nittany Lions' athletic director Tim Curley announced today.

The teams are scheduled to meet September 13, 2008 in Syracuse and September 12, 2009 in Beaver Stadium.

The Nittany Lions and Orangemen have not met since 1990, with Penn State capturing a 27-21 victory to improve its series edge to 40-23-5. Penn State won 16 consecutive games in the series before Syracuse earned wins in 1987 and '88. The Lions won the last two clashes in 1989 and '90. The two schools met every year from 1944-90 and the Orangemen trail only Pittsburgh (96 games) in number of games against Penn State on the gridiron.

Syracuse is the latest opponent to be announced in a series of intersectional games for Penn State this decade. Among the Nittany Lions' non-conference opponents this decade are: Miami, Fla. (2001), Southern Miss (2001), Virginia (2001-02), Nebraska (2002-03), Boston College (2003-04), Alabama (2004-05) and Syracuse (2008-09).

Joe Paterno enters his 37th season as head coach of the Nittany Lions this fall with 28 lettermen and 16 starters returning. Penn State hosts UCF on August 31 at 12:10 p.m. in the 2002 season opener, followed by a visit from Nebraska on Sept. 14 at 8:00 p.m. The Nittany Lions are entering their 10th season of competition in the Big Ten Conference.