Lehigh Football Nation

By all accounts what happened at UAB was extraordinary. Last November, football at UAB was essentially abolished by the University of Alabama's Board of Trustees and confirmed by president Ray Watts .  The decision was made secretly, in the middle of the season, with an entire press release written up - but since it didn't "look good", Watts kept up with the fiction that there still was a decision to be made. After the season concluded, Watts announced the termination of the program, saying that "was not about finances... but planning for excellence in the future for everything we do." You probably know the rest of the story.  It was immediately apparent to all (but apparently not Watts, or the CarrSports Consultants who were commissioned the data to help make that decision) that UAB's termination of football would almost certainly cost them membership in Conference USA, which was one of several factors that helped set ablaze students, alumni, a...

When you see this picture of Loyola University headgear, do you think football, or lacrosse? If you're a rabid college football fan, you're forgiven if you think of this as a possible concept football helmet for a member of the Patriot League, Loyola (MD).  (Even though it's actually a lacrosse helmet.) As ever, I'm always looking for possible Patriot League football expansion scenarios.  And I started to take a look at the financial details of the schools of the Patriot League and some of the other schools in the Northeast that sponsor FCS football, one nagging question kept reappearing in my mind. Why am I looking around for outside expansion candidates when two of the best possible additions in the league for football are already full-sports members? One had a decidedly modest football history that didn't make that much of a dent on the college football consciousness.  The other had a rich football history buried by a president that was an ideological...