SHEPHERDSTOWN — Even though there will be no national championship at stake, the Big 12 Conference title couldn’t be secured and the Mountaineers dropped close, wrenching losses in their last two games, going to central Florida for a season-closing bowl game isn’t bad at all.

Orlando. Mickey and Minnie. Donald, Huey and Dewey. Pluto. Pleasant days and hospitable evenings.

And the Syracuse Orange, an old Big East rival from the memorable era of coach Art “Pappy” Lewis on one side of the scarred turf and coach Floyd “Ben” Schwartzwalder on the other.

Floyd Little and Larry Csonka on the same Syracuse team. Ernie Davis and Jim Brown wearing jersey number 44. West Virginia and its Sugar Bowl team from the mid-1950s.

The two one-time Eastern independents played every year from 1955 through 2012, when the Big East vanished . . . and so did the regular season rivalry.

When last seen, Syracuse was out-weathering the Mountaineers in the snow squalls, erratic winds and nastiness that was the Pinstripe Bowl held in Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, New York.

West Virginia will come to Orlando scoring 42.3 points per game, and the Orange will come with their 40.75 points per game.

Syracuse cedes 27.75 points a game to its opponents. With acclaimed quarterback Eric Dungey throwing 17 touchdown passes and running for 732 yards during the 12-game regular season, the Orange had 467.9 yards of total offense per game. Their opponents did well enough, with 426.8 yards of total offense.

The only three losses Syracuse had, were by four points to Clemson, by seven points in overtime to Pittsburgh and a mauling at Yankee Stadium at the hands of Notre Dame.

The nine wins included a 51-41 win over North Carolina State, a 54-23 lacing of Louisville and romping over Boston College, 42-21, to close the regular season.

West Virginia finished at 8-3, was ranked 16th in the final polls and came close to playing in the conference championship game.

David Long, Jr., was selected as the league’s Defensive Player of the Year.

The last time a Mountaineer team visited Florida for a bowl game was in late 2016, when Miami defeated WVU, 31-14, in the Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando.

A much-remembered and justly-revered bowl game played in Florida came for coach Dana Holgorsen and company in the fabled Orange Bowl, when the Mountaineers delivered to Clemson a none-too-delicate 70-33 loss on Jan. 4, 2011.

This time, people want the wonders of 65-degree weather, excitement from both offenses rumbling up-and-down the field and a close game.

The Camping World Bowl in sunny Orlando. Hopefully, it will make those associated with this bowl forget the Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl in 2017, played in the cold and gloom made even colder and gloomier by Utah in its win over the Mountaineers.

Dana Holgorsen and company in the fabled Orange Bowl, when the Mountaineers delivered to Clemson a none-too-delicate 70-33 loss on Jan. 4, 2011.

This time, people want the wonders of 65-degree weather, excitement from both offenses rumbling up-and-down the field and a close game.

The Camping World Bowl in sunny Orlando. Hopefully, it will make those associated with this bowl forget the Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl in 2017, played in the cold and gloom made even colder and gloomier by Utah in its win over the Mountaineers.