The next time a Syracuse University sports squad takes the field in a league contest, it will be a battle in the ACC.

Yes, the much-anticipated move from the Big East is upon Orange fans.

I know you want to be able to talk intelligently about the Clemson Tigers and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, just like you’ve been able to hold court the last couple of decades on all those Hoyas, Wildcats, Bulls …

Two Central New York writers cooked up a book to help your mission. “The Syracuse Fan’s Survival Guide to the ACC,” published this month by Reedy Press in St. Louis, is the work of veteran big daily basketball beat guy Mike Waters and I.

Waters’ credentials are impeccable. He’s a multiple national award winner who attended the University of North Carolina, smack dab down in the ACC’s famed Tobacco Road.

As for myself, after graduating from the University of Maryland, where I witnessed numerous Terrapins clashes with ACC rivals, covering Maryland was one of my duties during four years as sports editor of The Prince George’s Journal. After I moved to Syracuse, I was a sports editor at the big daily covering the Orange for eight years. In fact, one of my accomplishments was hiring Waters for the job he still does so very well.

So when Waters asked me this winter if I was in, the answer was obvious. We split the chapters. Both of us searched the memory banks about those trips we’ve made to ACC campuses. We researched the past and the present.

What we came up with is both a fast read and a book to keep on the coffee table until the next time the Orange takes on Duke or North Carolina State in football or basketball.

For each ACC school (minus Maryland, which leaves for the Big Ten in 2014, drats, and plus Louisville, which replaces the Terps) you’ll find school history, sports history and connections to Syracuse teams in football and basketball. There are also tips for trips to every other league town, about sight-seeing, shopping, hotels, restaurants and bars.

In other words, “The Syracuse Fan’s Survival Guide to the ACC” will let you go into this new sports relationship informed.

You can buy it on amazon.com.

As the fall seasons approach, Waters and I will be talking about the book on the air, in print and online.

Already, an interview with Waters has been published on the popular troynunes site.

This afternoon, I’m scheduled to chat with Brad Bierman of The Juice Online.

(Here’s the link to the resulting Q and A.)

Friday at 4 p.m., we’ll both sit down with Chris McManus of Syracuse’s ESPN Radio. Tuesday, we’ll join Tim Fox on WSYR-9’s morning show “Bridge Street.”

Being on this side of a media blitz sure will be different.