Lehigh Football Nation

As the Philadelphia Eagles continue their open practices at Murray Goodman, this Tuesday another media event will be happening in Bethlehem across the Lehigh river on the outer edge of town- Patriot League Media Day. That meeting will spawn a host of different articles in the papers around the league, along with preseason polls and some whining about the need to change the name of "Division I-AA football" to "Division I - PCS division football". In this year, the 20th year of the Patriot League's existence, it's worthwhile to explore what the Patriot League was, is, and what may be. In 1985, the Patriot League was born (as the Colonial League) as a I-AA football conference with 6 charter members - Lehigh, Lafayette, Bucknell, Holy Cross, Colgate, and Davidson (out of Noth Carolina). Its mission was to create a football league of small schools (less than 10,000 undergraduate enrollment) with great academics while granting no football scholarships. With the ex...