Syracuse mascot Otto the Orange also banned from postseason play

Syracuse is dealing with a self-imposed postseason ban this year and it appears that this extends all the way to the team's mascot, Otto the Orange, who was left out of the ACC tournament's annual mascot game on Thursday.

Extra Mustard | Mar 13, 2015

Syracuse mascot Otto the Orange also banned from postseason play /

Syracuse is dealing with a self-imposed postseason ban this season and it appears that this extends all the way to the team's mascot, Otto the Orange, who was left out of the ACC tournament's annual mascot game on Thursday.

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The Associated Press reports that the conference's other 14 mascots all participated in the event but the anthropomorphic fruit was nowhere to be seen.

MT @ccarlsononSU: Beloved furball, Otto, omitted from ACC Tourney's mascot game. Sad.//Nobody puts Otto in a corner. pic.twitter.com/7ZxgG3kt2J
— Brian Neal (@BrianNealNews) March 12, 2015

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This was only Syracuse's second season in the conference, so Otto has only made one appearance in the mascot game, but he showed off speed and a mid-range game that had a lot of fans excited to see what he could do with more experience in this year's contest.

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In addition to the postseason ban, Syracuse will lose 12 scholarships and Jim Boeheim will be suspended for the first nine conference games next season, after the NCAA found the program committed academic fraud and allowed illegal booster activity.

GALLERY: BEST COLLEGE MASCOTS

The 25 Best Mascots in College Football

Ric Tapia, Patrick S Blood/Icon Sportswire

#25: Minnesota's Goldy Gopher — When your mascot resembles your now-retired coach, Jerry Kill (inset), you're going to make the list.

#24: Florida's Albert and Alberta Gator — Dawwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. They're so cute.

#23: South Carolina's Cocky — A mascot named Cocky that does photo shoots and generally horses around. *Swoon.*

#22: Alabama's Big Al — Just look at that trunk. Look at it.

#21: TCU's Super Frog — The horned frog is not a made-up super villain from an early 1990s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers episode. But the horned frog may very well be evil (not confirmed).

#20: Nebraska's Lil' Red — No. No no no no no.

#19: Louisiana-Lafayette's Cayenne — Yes. Yes yes yes yes yes.

#18: Delta State's Fighting Okra — An actual school that actual people attend to earn actual degrees uses a cartoonish Okra for a mascot. It also plays tricks on people in commercials. Fear the Okra.

#17: Wake Forest's The Demon Deacon — Arguably the coolest thing about Wake Forest, the Demon Deacon is a mascot that has a bow tie hanging from his chin and rides around on a custom-built chopper.

#16: Georgia Tech's Ramblin' Wreck — Speaking of Fords, Henry Ford probably digs the Ramblin' Wreck.

#15: Oklahoma's Sooner Schooner — Acclaimed Western director John Ford probably watches this every week from heaven. After all, it's a covered wagon riding around on a football field.

#14: Tennessee's Smokey — Smokey is a rebel. And Smokey doesn't take guff from anyone. He even gave College GameDay a piece of his mind.

#13: Michigan State's Sparty — A relic from a time when people decided to make humans look like weird Play-Doh men (also: see Boilermaker Special), Sparty is always active and in surprisingly good spirits, no matter how many "Sparty No" moments pop up.

#12: Miami's Sebastian the Ibis — Just like Puddles at Oregon, only with national championships and way more sanctions.

#11: Stanford's The Tree — Scary, weird and distinctly Palo Alto.

#10: West Virginia's The Mountaineer — Angry, excitable and sunburnt. The Mountaineer sums up WVU perfectly.

#9: Western Kentucky's Big Red — Big Red has gone Hollywood and gets featured in a bunch of ESPN commercials.

#8: Syracuse's Otto the Orange — A distant cousin to the delightful Obie the Orange (the Orange Bowl mascot), Otto is meaner than he looks — and always causing more trouble than he should be.

#7: Auburn's War Eagle — As Bill Connelly puts it in his book Study Hall, "In Auburn, Alabama, a town of 53,000, up to 87,000 people show up to watch an eagle fly around a stadium. A retired eagle still hangs out on campus. (The team's nickname is the Tigers, by the way.)" This is one of the coolest things in sports.

#6: Colorado's Ralphie — College students near a real-life buffalo. What could go wrong? (Are we sensing a trend?)

#5: Oregon's Puddles — The most Disney mascot out there, and Puddles is pretty extreme. One time he even lost his head skydiving, so there's that.

#4: Texas's Bevo — College students near a real-life steer. What could go wrong?

Steve Franz/Louisiana State University/Collegiate Images/Getty Images; Simon Bruty

#3: LSU's Mike the Tiger — College students near a real-life tiger. What could go wrong?

#2: Georgia's Uga — The Fast & Furious of mascots, Uga will never end because Uga will always be a hit.

#1: Florida State's Chief Osceola — This is as good as it gets: A dude decked out in full gear, riding a horse at full speed and throwing a flaming spear into the ground. If it were at all possible, I'd rank this mascot even higher than No. 1. — Honrable mentions: Reveille (Texas A&M), Bucky Badger (Wisconsin), Brutus (Ohio State), Falcon (Air Force), The Leprechaun (Notre Dame), The Traveler (USC), Tusk (Arkansas), The Hokie Bird (Virginia Tech), The Masked Rider (Texas Tech), The Zip (Akron).

- Brendan Maloy

Published Mar 13, 2015

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