FCS National Championship Game Becomes a Frisco (TX) Treat

This FCS offseason, there was a spirited battle going on. No, not for recruits, but for the new site of the FCS National Championship game. Chattanooga, the host for what seems like forever, suddenly had someone to bid against: Frisco, Texas, who boast Pizza Hut Park, home of Major League Soccer's Dallas Burn.

Today, the NCAA made it official: the first FCS championship game to be played in January will also be played in a new venue. In a town where there is no FCS team, next year's championship will be played about a half hour north of Dallas.

And "Big Tex", the iconic mascot of the Texas State fair, isn't the only one who's smiling: the Southland columnist at the College Sporting News is also smiling pretty broadly as well. In his excellent blog posting covering the announcement, he details the reaction across the country - and the happiness the bid is bringing to members of the Southland conference. (And in Ralph's Rag over there as well, you can read more about the announcement too - and why three out of the four major news organizations got the announcement wrong.)

Me? It simply inspired me to make jokes: the Top 10 reasons why Frisco was was selected. (more)

Reprinted from my blog at the College Sporting News, I couldn't resist: here's my (somewhat) tongue-in-cheek list as to why Frisco, Texas - a town without a FCS team to call home - won the bidding to become the home of the FCS National Championship game for the next three years.

10. After Chattanooga tripled their bid, the NCAA managed to negotiate free wings to go with their free one-topping pizzas for life from Pizza Hut.

9. Because the NCAA thought it was high time that "Tree City USA" got a postseason game.

8. This way, Dallas can at least crown [I][B]one[/B][/I] champion for the next three years, since it's not like the Cowboys, Stars or Mavericks are ever going to get it done.

7. The NCAA was reportedly unimpressed with the slogan "Amtrak-it to Chatty"!

6. Because J.R. told them to. (Which, ironically, was reportedly the slogan Frisco brought up with them to Indianapolis to make their pitch.)

5. The Cotton Bowl will need somewhere for the fans to go when they can't get scalped tickets to their non-championship game, and when they realize that a true champion is going to be crowned in Frisco they might just stay.

4. The NCAA thought it was better to issue the game to a place best known for being a watering-hole for trans-continental railways than the main railway hub after the civil war.

3. The IKEA in Frisco is just bigger - just like everything else in Texas.

2. This will do wonders for Dallas Baptist's bid to join the Sun Belt. (Of course, they'll have to start a football team first.

And the No. 1 reason why Frisco is now the site of the 2010 FCS National Championship Game:

1. Big Tex needs something to do in between state fairs.

(Photo courtesy Dallas Observer).

How The Ivy League Is Able To Break the NCAA's Scholarship Limits and Still Consider Themselves FCS

By now you've seen the results. In 2018, the Ivy League has taken the FCS by storm. Perhaps it was Penn's 30-10 defeat of Lehigh a couple of weeks ago . Or maybe it was Princeton's 50-9 drubbing of another team that made the FCS Playoffs last year, Monmouth. Or maybe it was Yale's shockingly dominant 35-14 win over nationally-ranked Maine last weekend. The Ivy League has gone an astounding 12-4 so far in out-of-conference play, many of those wins coming against the Patriot League. But it's not just against the Patriot League where the Ivy League has excelled. Every Ivy League school has at least one out-of-conference victory, which is remarkable since it is only three games into their football season. The four losses - Rhode Island over Harvard, Holy Cross over Yale, Delaware over Cornell, and Cal Poly over Brown - were either close losses that could have gone either way or expected blowouts of teams picked to be at the bottom of the Ivy League. W

Made-Up Midseason Grades for Lehigh Football

We are now officially midway through the 2023 Lehigh football season. The Mountain Hawks sit at 1-5 overall, and 0-1 in the Patriot League. I thought I'd go ahead and make up some midseason grades, and set some "fan goals" for the second half. The 2023 Mountain Hawks were picked to finish fifth in the seven team Patriot League. In order to meet or exceed that expectation, they'll probably have to go at least 3-2 the rest of the way in conference play. Their remaining games are vs. Georgetown, at Bucknell, vs. Holy Cross, at Colgate, and vs. Lafayette in The Rivalry. Can they do it? Culture Changing: B+ . I was there in the Bronx last week after the tough 38-35 defeat to Fordham, and there wasn't a single player emerging from the locker room that looked like they didn't care. Every face was glum. They didn't even seem sad. More frustrated and angry. That may seem normal, considering the agonizing way the Mountain Hawks lost, but it was a marked chan

Fifteen Guys Who Might be Lehigh's Next Football Coach (and Five More)

If you've been following my Twitter account, you might have caught some "possibilities" as Lehigh's next head football coach like Lou Holtz, Brett Favre and Bo Pelini . The chance that any of those three guys actually are offered and accept the Lehigh head coaching position are somewhere between zero and zero. (The full list of my Twitter "possibilities" are all on this thread on the Lehigh Sports Forum .) However the actual Lehigh head football coaching search is well underway, with real names and real possibilities. I've come up with a list of fifteen possible names, some which I've heard whispered as candidates, others which might be good fits at Lehigh for a variety of reasons. UPDATE: I have found five more names of possible head coaches that I am adding to this list below. Who are the twenty people? Here they are, in alphabetical order.

Lehigh Football Nation

Search This Blog