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Patriot League Media Day 2007

Patriot League media today was today. For the uninitiated, it's a day for the media to hear the story of the upcoming football season as told by the players, coaches, and league brass. I'm planning to write a fuller recap tomorrow, but I wanted to weigh in with some "quick hit" observations first.

* Lafayette was the surprise #1 pick in the Patriot League Preseason Poll, with Lehigh only one vote behind. This may not necessarily be a bad thing, considering that the preseason poll winner hasn't ended up winning the league since Lehigh did it in... 2001.

* However, it wasn't the only surprise in the poll. Nationally-ranked in some polls, Holy Cross was picked to finish 4th behind Colgate (who was 4-7 last year). Colgate and Holy Cross were only separated by two votes as well, which shows something real interesting: the teams themselves don't seem to have a real clear vision as to who's going to take this thing. Parity among the top four - some would even say the top five, including Bucknell - seems to be the order of the day. Any of these five could win this thing.

* Senior QB Sedale Threatt (pictured) delivered what can only be called an incredible speech on what it's like to be a part of the Patriot League. Recalling what I can by memory, he talked about the "family" of the Patriot League, the Lehigh "family" and what it means to be a student-athlete in the type of academic institutions the Patriot League are. It really struck me, and I'm betting that it struck a lot of other folks there too.

* It's hard to put into words how fun it is to interview Patriot League players. They're all really great kids which tell me a lot about the exact right things about college athletics. In a world of corrupt NBA refs, steroids, the death of the Tour de France, dogfighting, and the bad goings-on around other Division I sports programs, the kids today really stood out.

* I got a very good interview with Ms. Carolyn Femovich, executive director of the Patriot League. I'll talk more about that, probably in a College Sporting News summation of the Patriot League Media day.

Tomorrow or Friday, schedule willing, I'll transcribe some of the Lehigh football players' notes and quotes here as well. But those were my initial, raw impressions of the goings-on.
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