Lehigh Football Nation

Usually, the analogy of dominoes is overdone.  But it's hard to escape it now that we know that Colorado has elected to join the conference formerly known as the Pac Ten , and Nebraska has elected to join the conference formerly known as the Big Ten . Where might other dominoes fall?  Will the Big XII cease to exist - or survice?  Will the Big East crumble, too - or expand by four (or more) teams?  Will the Mountain West become a Western counterpoint to the Pac-N - or see its best teams lured to that conference? It's a crazy, dangerous world out there right now, especially if you think you have all the answers on FBS conference realignment. But it's a good time - with a break in the action, sort of - where we can see where this all is could lead. It could be the start of megaconferences, the involvement of Congress - or not much else. (more)

I've been following the BCS/FBS conference realignment craziness with a whole lot of interest, having penned a piece on it for the College Sporting News that basically stated that the chance of a current FCS team making it into a BCS conference was between slim and none, and slim was nowhere to be found . It's hard to tell which rumors are real and which ones are imagined, but ESPN apparently has some pretty solid sources together (finally) that seem to imply that Nebraska could announce their intentions of being a member of the Big Ten as soon as Friday . If that happens, and the Pac Ten goes through with their threat to invite Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Colorado to their conference, there are a lot of teams that might be available for other BCS conferences to poach. The most intriguing of the scenarios? A couple of teams defined by their basketball success... getting offered an invitation by the Big East. (more)

It shouldn't be much of a news item, really, but as the NCAA released their Academic Progress Rate numbers this year it was no surprise to see Patriot League schools all over the honor list . Gushes the press release, "For the fifth consecutive year, Yale University had the most teams (24) recognized, followed by Dartmouth College (22) and the University of Pennsylvania (20). By conference, the Ivy Group had the most number of teams honored (135), followed by the Patriot League (90) and the Big East Conference (70). " Today, the NCAA released the full data for their APR numbers; not only the numbers from last year, but the four-year averages which the awards are based. Let's take a moment to look at the numbers for football and men's basketball for the Patriot League - and then compare them to the rest of Division I athletics. (more)