Today's water cooler topic is appropriate enough to me, for sure.Whether you're a Philadelphia Phillies fan (like my wife, 10-4!) or (like me) a Boston Red Sox fan (who stayed up late last night to witness another miracle comeback last night), chances are you've been spending a lot of time in front of the TV.
Now, I am not made of money. I don't have a TV like the one to my left, nor do I have the budget to take a trip up to Harvard this weekend. That means I'm going to be spending a lot of time on Saturday - my first one, as a matter fact - watching Patriot League games on TV and over the internet instead of watching it live.
For Lehigh fans and fans of "that school in Easton" that live in the Philadelphia area, we're in luck this weekend. Locally, Channel 69 carries the Lehigh game at Harvard with a 12:30 p.m. start time, and RCN-4 and WPBH-60 carries the Lafayette game at Liberty starting at 3:30 p.m. - ensuring that my home-grown DVR will be grinding away this weekend with Patriot League football action.
If you're not in the Lehigh area, you may still be in luck. The Harvard game will also be shown on NESN throughout New England, and the Lafayette game will be carried nationally through Liberty University's affiliation with the FamilyNet channel.
Still unavailable to you? Not a problem: for a small monthly fee, you can catch video all the Lehigh games over the world-wide internet through Lehighsports.com. This also has some added benefits: on-demand copies of the Lehigh Sports Magazine (broadcast every week locally on Channel 69, Monday at 7:30 PM), radio broadcasts of the games from AM 1230 and 1320 (in case you're not thrilled with Eric Frede & Steve DeOssie's call of the game), and footage from the Lehigh weekly press conferences at the Copperhead Grille.
****
So you've caught the first quarter on the radio (on ESPN Radio AM 1230 and 1320) running errands Saturday morning. You get home, put the radio stream on for th Lehigh game while watching the video on Channel 69. What about up-to-the-minute updates - and video - of the other games around the Patriot League?
I maintain the CSN Log's list of TV broadcasts and streaming internet games, and I've compiled a list of all the games on TV and the Internet for this weekend.
From that list, you can see that CSTV XXL has three Patriot League games this week. They have streaming video of Bucknell at Georgetown and Yale at Fordham (which is available free) at 1:00 p.m., and in case you can't get the Lafayette at Liberty game, that's also available at 3:30 p.m. on there as well.
Elsewhere, you can also get the Colgate game at Cornell at ibnsports.com at 1:00 p.m. You can also subscribe to DartmouthInsider to get live video at 12:30 p.m. of Holy Cross at Dartmouth - or get audio of the game there for free. (Or you can simply get phone updates from someone at the game - my dad, a Dartmouth alum, is going to the Homecoming game, and I'm sure I'll be hearing from him!)
There currently isn't a "Patriot League Game of the Week" through a league package - but with today's technology, you can come awfully close to it in your own house, and for not all that much money either.
Patriot League Picks: Week Eight
Redemption! This week, I went 5-1 to right my ship adn thrust him over .500 for the year at 14-11. To read the rest of my picks for FCS, click on the College Sporting News to see my CSN Way this week - along with an overview of the conference races.
Lafayette at No. 14 Liberty. Every eye in the Big South and the Patriot League is on this game. The Flames, who have cruised through the early part of their schedule (including wins over Youngstown State and Western Carolina), are undefeated behnd the steadfast running of runningback Rashad Jennings (725 yards, 10 TDs). But they don’t face off against any old defense: the Leopards are only allowing a paltry 76.8 rushing yards per game behind the strong front seven, led by linebacker Andy Romans. A win by the Flames and they go 7-0, and barring a severe misstep in league play they seem destined for an at-large bid to the FCS playoffs. A Lafayette win, and the Patriot League gets a huge shot in the arm - and big out-of-conference win - before heading into league play. The Leopard defense will do the job, but it’s the struggling Lafayette offense - who will severely miss runningback Maurice White, out with an injury - that will betray them at Williams stadium.
Heck Fire 23, Romans’ Not On a Holiday 10
Holy Cross at Dartmouth. On paper, this is a team still favored to make a run at the Patriot League title facing an 0-4 team. In practice, though, Dartmouth has always played Holy Cross tougher than you' imagine, and the Big Green consider this somewhat of a rivalry game. At Homecoming and with alumni in town from across the Northeast, Dartmouth will probably scare Holy Cross real good. Dominic Randolph will win it in the end, but it's not going to be the cakewalk some people think.
Purple Defense Eaters 35, Green Goes Green 28
Trigg Men 47, Hoya Boyas 6
Yale at Fordham. This matchup simply reeks of two teams heading in opposite directions: with the Rams most likely eliminated from the Patriot League title race in their 45-24 loss to Lehigh last week, and Yale getting energized in Ivy League play with a 34-7 throttling of Dartmouth. Worse for Fordham, Yale runningback Mike McLeod is just getting warmed up - how will that defensive line, unable to handle Lehigh, be able to handle the Elis "hogs"?
Elated Elis 37, Ram Rodded Rams 20
Colgate at Cornell. One of these years, I want to see this rivalry game between Cornell and Colgate. The 91st meeting between these two foes, it will indeed be a battle between the unstoppable force (Colgate runningback Jordan Scott) and the immovable object (Cornell's powerful rushing "D"). Will Cornell make it three straight - and bring Scott's string of 100 yard rushing games to an end? If I've learned anything over the past month, it's don't underestimate Cornell quarterback Nathan Ford. Cornell wins a close one again - with some great special teams play and a heroic quarterback effort.
Big Red Machine? 27, Railroaded Raiders 24
Comments