(Photo Credit: Colgate Athletics) Over the years, Lehigh/Colgate games have earned their reputation as being big games in the Patriot League race. Start with the history of the Patriot League. Lehigh and Colgate own or share fourteen Patriot League championships in football. They own six of the seven postseason wins in the FCS playoffs of the Patriot League. (Fordham has the other.) Many years, this game looms as important as to determining the champion of the Patriot League - and for precious bids to the FCS playoffs. And as a result, fans have flocked to this game in the past. In 2004, the Lehigh/Colgate clash was a battle of Top 20 teams, and was played in front of 13.929 fans. But this "Hate the 'Gate" rivalry - as coined by one-time Lehigh LB Matt Mohler - hasn't been the same in the past three years. The Mountain Hawks haven't been nationally ranked now for quite some time, while Colgate has often been in the FCS Top 25. Furthermore, Lehigh h...
Independent writing about Lehigh, the Patriot League, FCS football and whatever I damn well please since 2003