Lehigh Football Nation

It was the moment every opponent of Villanova was waiting for this offseason.  Draft day was approaching. But this professional draft isn't the one you're thinking it is. Wildcat senior WR Matt Szczur , who was last year's CAA player of the year and voted Most Outstanding Player of the FCS Championship game, was about to find out if he was going to be drafted in the Major League Baseball draft. With legions of Delaware, Temple, Lehigh, Richmond and James Madison fans cheering him on, the word came out: he was drafted in the fifth round by the Chicago Cubs. Undoubtedly, cheers rang out. That is, until Villanova issued a press release mentioning that part of his Cubs contract would stipulate that he would return for his final year of football eligibility. What that means to Villanova opponents is: one more year of Number Four. (Cue the groans.) (more)

Football programs coming from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (or HBCU's for short) have a large, rich history that has made I-AA/FCS football an awesome sport to cover over the years.  They bring not only great athletes and football games to the subdivision, but also bring (though I hate using this word) halftime pageantry to football games that can be sorely lacking elsewhere in FCS. But there's also a bit of soul-searching going on in the world of HBCU's as well. The two HBCU conferences in FCS football, the MEAC and SWAC, have decided on different approaches to life in Division I football - one which chooses to host a championship game, the other which chooses to compete in the FCS playoffs with schools like Villanova, Holy Cross and Montana. Now, a radical proposal promises to further separate the worlds of the playoff-playing teams and the rest of the HBCU community - and may even cause a conference to pull apart. (more)