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...

(Photo Credit: Lehigh Valley Live) Over the years, the schools of the Patriot League have had a reputation as being slow, contemplative, and not exactly proactive when it comes to matters of expansion or conference movements. A recent blog post from an odd source, however, shows how untrue this reputation is, at least in regards to the swirling winds around collegiate realignment the past few years. From the Shades of 48 blog, comes detailed freedom-of-information act information from William and Mary that exposes quite a bit about the process that goes on when a school and a conference are mulling over a potential move. It also shows how seriously William and Mary thought about leaving the CAA and joining the Patriot League.  In all sports.

It is July 1st, and around the world of college athletics, a lot of conferences are saying goodbye, and hello. The Big East said goodbye to a whole lot of its founding members, and renamed itself the American Athletic Conference.  Those members moved on to their new offices, where they will call themselves... the Big East. The CAA say goodbye to Georgia State, Old Dominion and VCU.  And they say hello to Albany (in football only), Stony Brook (in football only), the College of Charleston (with no football) and Elon. The SoCon say goodbye to College of Charleston, Appalachian State, Elon and Georgia Southern, and say hello to one new member, Mercer and hello again to two old members, East Tennessee State and VMI. The Patriot League, though, is not saying goodbye at all.  They're saying hello to their two newest members: Loyola (MD) and Boston University.

In football, there is BYU, Notre Dame, Army and Navy, the last independents in an FBS world of conferences and the payouts they generate for their members. In men's lacrosse, there is Johns Hopkins, High Point, Marquette and Mercer - not exactly the same cavalcade of stars as in bowl football. But one of those four, Johns Hopkins, the nine-time NCAA champions of the modern era, are superstars of the lacrosse world.  Founded in 1883, they are one of the founding fathers of the sport of lacrosse and have been involved in its play essentially since the founding of the university in 1876. What the people say around this 130 year old lacrosse program matters - and they've said that finally, after 130 years of competing as an independent, they are finally joining a conference in men's lacrosse. "In a letter to the Johns Hopkins community on Friday, May 17, President Ronald J. Daniels announced that he has accepted the recommendation of a special committee that the...

Patriot League executive director Carolyn Schlie Femovich has, by any measure, has presided over an extraordinary 2011-2012 athletic year. That football scholarships were not the only interesting subject on Patriot League Media Day is a testament to the number of history-making moves that has taken place in the span of the 2011-2012 football offseason, and it's something that Femovich certainly understands well. "It's been a very significant year for the league, and I give the presidents and athletic directors a lot of credit for that," she said. "The scholarship decision was a significant step for us, the admission of Boston Univeristy will be a strong member for us, and the expanded TV package - I think it's all an indication that what we're doing has value and merit: other people want to join us, we put a product on the field that is successful, and a product that people can be proud of. It's a good place to be."

Nobody outside of the inner circle saw this one coming. With most dimestore pundits ( including this one ) thinking that Boston University might be a target of the CAA's effort to solve their current woes, Boston University president Robert A. Brown and the eight presidents of the Patriot League pulled the trigger on a shocker of a conference move. It's a move that was years in the making - yet proceeded at the speed of the winds of rapid change that are coarsing through collegiate athletics. It's a move that doesn't make immediate sense - yet makes perfect sense, the more you look at it. But more than anything, the move, which will take place on July 1st, 2013, is a throwback to how conference expansion used to be.

When Lafayette president Daniel H. Weiss announced to the world that the Patriot League would be allowing schools to allow merit-based aid - i.e., allowing the same types of athletic scholarships that other FCS schools can offer - there was a lot of rejoicing  with Patriot League fans for a variety of reasons. "We make this decision in recognition that we believe that it will help the league to remain strong and competitive." he mentioned in his opening statement, "We believe over time what this decision is in the best interest of the league because it will help us with future membership prospects." This past week, a subtle change to the Patriot League website seems to indicate that perhaps, just perhaps, that future membership prospects might be happening sooner rather than later. Could a new member be joining the Patriot League by the 2013 season?

Admit it: if you're a Lehigh or Delaware fan, you are having serious fun this week.  The playoffs are always great - but of all the first round matchups, without question no other matchup evokes the animal spirits like the one happening in Newark, Delaware this weekend.  (I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Eastern Washington/Southeast Missouri State hasn't spawned hundreds of pages of smack, and dozens of print articles, on their matchup this weekend.) For Lehigh, Delaware and Villanova, whose Northeast-based fans can enjoy a double-dip of playoff football (Lehigh/Delaware at noon on WFMZ 69, and Villanova/Stephen F.Austin at 3:30 on Philly CW 57 - honestly, are you going to pass that up to discover who wins the Big East?) it's the best of times. But, it's also the one year anniversary of the "worst of times", too, for Northeast football - the announcement that Hofstra, joining Northeastern who had announced their decision a week prior, ha...

(With sincere apologies to anyone involved with the movie Network , and the estate of one of my favorite writers, Paddy Chayefsky.) "I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter... [and now Hofstra's president, in the blink of an eye, drops its football team.] Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about [the demise of Hofstra football]. All I know is that first... you've got to get mad!" - Howard Beale, UBS Newsman This wasn't really what happened in the movie Network , but the way Hofstra's president suddenly and surpris...