Lehigh Football Nation

Earlier this week, I posted some of my thoughts about why I am still mad about Hofstra dropping football . Reaction was fairly positive - but some folks, in so many words, questioned what a CAA schools' problems with supporting football have to do with Lehigh, the Patriot League, or even private school football programs in general (gently reminding me that the name of this blog is "Lehigh Football Nation", not "Hofstra Football Nation", " Defiantly Dutch " or anything else). The answer to this question is: Hofstra's decision means a whole heck of a lot to every football program in FCS. But it especially means a lot to the Patriot League's seven football schools. ***** Hofstra is a private university, just like Fordham, Lehigh, Georgetown, and every other school in the Patriot League. And Hofstra's president - by many accounts, unilaterally - made the decision to drop football. Hofstra's president, Stuart Rabinowitz, cited costs and l

(With sincere apologies to anyone involved with the movie Network , and the estate of one of my favorite writers, Paddy Chayefsky.) "I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter... [and now Hofstra's president, in the blink of an eye, drops its football team.] Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about [the demise of Hofstra football]. All I know is that first... you've got to get mad!" - Howard Beale, UBS Newsman This wasn't really what happened in the movie Network , but the way Hofstra's president suddenly and surpris