Lehigh Football Nation

Exactly when is a media entity not entitled to report on itself? This is the question I frequently pose to myself when ESPN, Fox and CBS report on anything about college realignment issues in general. It's especially true about this report made by Jeremy Fowler of CBS Sports.Com, which purports to be an inside look at who has the "most say" in realignment - TV networks or the conferences themselves. The good news is that there are a lot of revealing insights into the top men running the show in collegiate athletics, including media people and conference commissioners.  The bad news is that it reads like the writer is trying to snooker the reader into thinking that TV has no influence over realignment - when a keener, more independent look at the quotes reveals anything but.

As weakly-sung 80's hair metal ballads go, you could do a lot worse than the Scorpions ' "Wind of Change", the German group's documentation of the fall of Soviet-style communism in Eastern Europe.  (Though I never could get into Klaus Meine 's vocals, which were always comically flat to me.) To some Patriot League fans, the wind of change blowing through collegiate athletics right now seems as distant to them as the Scorpions' last hit record.  Does it matter, they seem to say, that the Big East might break apart?   The Patriot League, after all, has their core ideals and priciples, and if the rest of the NCAA tears itself apart over money, ego, or something else, what is it to the schools of the Patriot? The answer, of course, is absolutely everything - no matter what any deniers might say.  As I'll demonstrate in this blog posting, what happens in the Big East could potentially make a very big difference in the Hoya football program.

I've tried to stay out of this FBS realignment talk.  Really I have. Like many of you, I see the headlines scroll by on Twitter, and try to make some sense of it all - Texas A&M to the SEC!  Conference USA and the Mountain West merge!  Texas State goes to the WAC!  But in many ways, it's like Tibetan soccer to me: a foreign sport that has little to nothing to do with the goings-on in the league I care about, the Patriot League. That all changed with talk that Temple could be joining the Big East . These talks about Temple joining the conference - a school in direct competition for the heart and soul of the Philadelphia market with one of its current members - could be the move that destabilizes everything.

Foolish me, thinking that conference realignment might be put on hold while actual college football is being played. Almost a week ago today, the ACC made its latest school grab from the Big East, nabbing Pitt and Syracuse in a move that was destined to upend conference apple carts all over the country . The move has caused an earthquake of conference speculation - and set other potential moves in motion.  And those moves open up a lot of questions for anyone who cares about the Patriot League.   (more)

This weekend, we had some close "friends" and their kids visit our family for some Pennsylvania fun.  It's was a perfect time to have them stay and visit, while school is still out and right before the football season starts, when everything starts to get crazy for us. Their visiting, getting caught up with their lives, and even playing Hearts for the first time in years with them made me think afresh about the meaning of "friendship", a word whose value has clearly been cheapened since the rise of the "social network". And, surprisingly, in the word "friend" there's also a lesson to be learned about college football expansion, too.  While folks go on about revenue, regionality or even interesting football games, sometimes "friendships" are more important. (more)

No, really, does it ever get old to make fun of Al Gore ? Seen here telling the world that manbearpig is indeed real (thanks to the folks at South Park ), his wooden yet passionate crusades, his irregular spasms of passion and energy, and even his exaggerated sighs in the 2000 campaign often make me laugh when I'm feeling down. What I love the most, though, is his movie An Inconvenient Truth . While you can debate whether a movie which genuinely talked about his father's tobacco plantations in terms of climate change (?) should have really won the Oscar, it's really the title that is the best part of the entire movie, which is largely an extremely PowerPoint presentation (with some footage of melting icebergs) that, frankly, I seriously doubt many people actually saw. It's the quintessential "oh-yeah-I-saw-that" movie that nobody saw, since most people like to be on the side of reducing climate change, not denying that it exists. Best of all, "An...

You have to feel bad for Villanova fans this week. No, I'm not talking about their getting turfed in the 1st 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament in basketball by George Mason, though that was certainly not a day that Wildcat fans will wish to revisit anytime soon. I'm talking about the delay of a much-anticipated decision by Villanova to vote on joining the Big East in football. After exploring, fundraising, lining up plans and generally raising their fans expectations to BCS levels, Villanova has seen its plan shot down by the same body that seemed to be begging them nine months ago to join up as an all-sports member. (more)

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)

Spring football ended last month, but there's plenty of buzz to report around a host of Patriot League football programs. I've covered the goings-on at Lehigh, Lafayette, Colgate and Holy Cross , and I made a special section about the exciting new developments at Bucknell . But as much or more is in the wind at Georgetown - with, potentially, an event in the near future that could fundamentally change the type of athletics program Georgetown currently runs. When most members of the Patriot League hear about rumors like the Big Ten's interest in expansion , most probably shrug - after all, the Big Ten or Big East are hardly going to be going approaching Bucknell, Colgate or Holy Cross for potential membership. Georgetown fans, however, are very much paying attention. Their athletic department may be fighting to keep the Big East together for all their other sports - or at least battling for security no matter what happens. That battle affects all of Georgetown athlet...

Three days after I opine that perhaps something is awfully fishy down Big East Way , Georgetown athletic director Bernard Muir suddenly fills the vacant AD position at Delaware : Georgetown announced Monday that athletic director Bernard Muir was resigning to accept the same post at the University of Delaware. Georgetown's search for Muir's replacement will begin immediately. "I am grateful for the contributions that Bernard Muir has made to Georgetown," Georgetown President John J. DeGioia said in a statement. "Bernard has recruited outstanding new coaches and bolstered academic support and leadership development opportunities for our student athletes." Sources close to the program said Muir's relationship with DeGioia became strained when he interviewed for openings at Duke and Northwestern in the past year. Many Georgetown and Big East observers are scratching their heads . Why should the athletic director, who told the head football coach he would ...