It's Towson after Turkey

On Sunday, the playoff matchups were announced, and it was revealed that Lehigh would be playing the champion of the CAA, Towson, on the road in Towson, Maryland. (Time TBD)

Some folks seemed, perhaps, a bit miffed that Lehigh didn't get the opportunity to host a home playoff game - but on balance, were pleased. They'll be able to make a short trip to battle the best team in the CAA this year, and also line up against a team that was once a member of the Patriot League.

It's a matchup that has pleased everyone I've talked to.

The CAA champions, at 9-2, will not be an easy out.

While you can expect a much more substantial preview closer to game time, they boast one of the best rushing offenses in all of FCS, behind freshman RB Terrance West's 1,242 yards rushing in 10 games.

Lehigh and Towson at one time were members of the Patriot League, back when Gordy Combs was the Tigers' coach and Towson's Patriot League title hopes seemed to be dashed by Lehigh every year.

The Mountain Hawks went 10-1 against the Tigers, who always had entertaining shootouts with "Air Lehigh".

The matchup between the former Patriot League foes is just one aspect of this game that will bevery interesting the week after Thanksgiving. The other is the likelihood that the winner will be the ultimate winner of the Lambert Trophy, given to the best team in the East.

Right now, Lehigh sits at No. 1 in this poll, and Towson at No. 2.

This Towson team is much, much different, however, than the teams the Mountain Hawks battled in the 1980s and 1990s. It's goingto be a great game.

While I would have preferred a home game at Murray Goodman, it will be great to see Towson once again.

*****

Lehigh's draw is very intriguing to me in the sense, too, that should they get past Towson, they have some very intriguing possible matchups thereafter.

On their side of the bracket, should they win, they would either travel to No. 2 overall seed North Dakota State - who played Lafayette to open the season - or play two teams with playoff history against Lehigh, James Madison or Eastern Kentucky.

Eastern Kentucky denied Lehigh not one, but two I-AA championship opportunities back in 1979 and 1980. It would be a thrill to play them again - and for the first time since 1980, when Roy Kidd outduelled John Whitehead at Taylor Stadium 23-20.

Or they could host James Madison - who, in 2004, won against Lehigh 14-13 in the infamous "7th-and-goal" game.

It's a bracket filled with potential Patriot League or Lehigh revenge - there's lots to like.

*****

I'm personally very happy for this game at Towson - which is at a time yet to be determined. I cannot wait.

What a great time of year - Turkey, then Towson.

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....

UMass 21, Lafayette 14, halftime

Are you watching this game? UMass had this game under control until about 3 minutes in the second quarter, and then got an interception, converted for a TD. Then the Leopards forced a fumble off the return, and then converted THAT for a TD, making this a game. It's on CN8. You really should be watching this.

Examining A Figure Skating Rivalry: Tonya and Nancy

It must be very hard for a millennial to understand the fuss around the Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding figure skating scandal in the run-up to the 1994 Olympics. If you're of a certain age, though - whether you're a figure skating fan or not, and I am decidedly no fan of figure skating - the Shakespearean story of Harding and Kerrigan still engages, and still grabs peoples' attention, twenty years later. Why, though? Why, twenty years later, in a sport I care little, does the story still grab me? Why did I spend time out of my life watching dueling NBC and ESPN documentaries on the subject, and Google multiple stories about Jeff Gilooly , idiot "bodyguards", and the whole sordid affair? I think it's because the story, even twenty years later, is like opium. The addictive story, even now, has everything. Everything. The woman that fought for everything, perhaps crossing over to the dark side to get her chance at Olypic Gold, vs. the woman who...

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