Lehigh Football Nation

Did you think you would get off easy on watching college football simply because it's Lehigh's bye week? First of all, it gives you time to catch up on watching ESPN's College Football Gameday, where you can see the Lehigh flag that frequently makes an appearance on the program.  (Who knows?  Perhaps Gameday will head to Lehigh for the Fordham game next weekend, or maybe perhaps #Rivalry151 in November.) There's also so good opportunities to scout out Lehigh's upcoming opponents in Patriot League action.  Three Patriot League games are taking place at lunchtime, and another is happening at 3:30 PM. If you receive the CBS Sports Network, you can see whether Bucknell will make it a perfect Patriot League sweep over Army-West Point in the 2015 football season.  The Bison face off against the Cadets at noon, and if you don't have it available on TV, it can be seen via subscription from Army's website .  In much of the Lehigh metro area, too, the game c...

If you're not able to catch the Bucknell game in person,  you can stream the game here from the Patriot League Digital Network.  It's a 1:00 PM start and it's the only available video broadcast of the game.  The link is below: Patriot League Digital Network What I like to do in times like this is to mute the PLDN broadcast, and to listen to simulcast of what's local in the Lehigh Valley on AM 1230 and AM 1320 (which you can put on your actual radio, if you like that sort of thing).  Today Matt Kerr, Matt Markus and Steve Lomangino are on the call: http://www.espnlv.com/ As bad luck may have it, the whole Patriot League slate up against one another on the Patriot League network.  There is a chance to catch the end of the Lafayette/Georgetown game after the Lehigh game.  If so, you will be able to find that here: http://campusinsiders.com/network/patriot_league/live ***** For the East Coast, and specifically Penn State and Notre Dame fans, t...

Anything else happening today of note? If you're not able to catch Lehigh/Princeton in person, whether due to the Pope being in town or just because you need to catch up on your wildflower collection, you can stream the game here from the Ivy League Digital Network.  Unfortunately, it is not a free service, like that of the Patriot League and NEC, so if you wish to enjoy the game this way, it will cost you a few bucks. Ivy League Digital Network If you're anything like me and are too cheap to spring for the $10 required, everyone's favorite radio call will be available here from Matt Kerr and  Matt Markus will be reporting the pregame and sideline: http://www.espnlv.com/ While waiting for Lehigh/Princeton to start, you can catch the first Patriot League conference game of the season, Colgate at Holy Cross: http://campusinsiders.com/network/patriot_league/live It also may be on your local TV.  Check your local listings .  It doesn't appear to be on in...

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.

Admit it. Even though you have that Halloween party to go to, even though you're preparing for the Frankenstorm, that appears more and more that it's going to pound our area starting Sunday night, even though you're planning on taking your kids to that Halloween party, parade, or trick-or-treating, something's missing. It's a fall Saturday without Lehigh football. But cheer up, Lehigh fans.  Even if you don't care to watch Penn State's inevitable loss to Ohio State this weekend, there's plenty of FCS football available on TV and the internet that has a lot more bearing on the Patriot League title race and the Mountain Hawks' standing in the playoff chase. You don't have to wait for Sunday night.

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."

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.

(Graphic Credit: Bogus Megapardus, not-so-proud member of the Any Given Saturday Community) The definition of the word "kerfuffle" is a one-liner: a "commotion" or "fuss". This week, a kerfuffle broke out in the world of the Patriot League: a fuss over broadcast rights in regards to televising a Patriot League football game. Inadvertently, the commotion about the airing of a Patriot League football game highlights a lot more than the situation of the game itself: it also highlights the strange, twisted world of Patriot League football coverage nationally and the differences they have, say, with the television concerns of the big boys.   (more)

Make no mistake, it's a groundbreaker. Earlier today, the Patriot League reached a new agreement with CBS Sports Network to show Patriot League sports contests on their network. It's an eye opener on a multitude of levels, partially due to its impact on football coverage and some, um, interesting announcements about football coverage coming up in the next couple of days. But the big story today involves the effect on basketball, where the Patriot League says goodbye to ESPN, the network that has carried the Patriot League men's basketball championship since 1991. (more)

It sure seems like - for now - the inexorable march towards sixteen team superconferences is at best sleeping, or at worst dead. After shrieking announcements that the Pac N was going to swoop in and poach five different football teams from the Big XII, the Big East might take all the rest and college football would be forever changed, it seems like, according to Andy Staples' Sports Illustrated article talking about the proceedings that "powerful outsiders, concerned that the Pac-10's plan to supersize to 16 by pillaging the Big 12 would set off an unstoppable chain of events, helped broker the deal, which may have saved college sports as currently constituted." Staples stopped short of saying it, but it could very well be one of the "powerful outsiders" that saved the Big XII may have been one of the forces that seemed to be driving it to destruction: Fox. (more)

If you can't be at the game (or you're only going to the tailgate), there are lots of places around the country to watch the game at telecast parties . Nationally and internationally, "The Rivalry" is broadcast everywhere for Lehigh alums to get together, share a cold one and also sing the old Lehigh alma mater with friends. There's also, of course, your TV (FCS Central, and Channel 69) and computer as well though Yahoo! Broadcast if you want to host your own viewing party. (If you're technically savvy - and I've done this before - you can route your laptop through your TV and watch the Yahoo! Broadcastt on your regular TV.) And that's only half the story, too. One of the more underreported parts of "The Rivalry" involve the media surrounding both schools. It could be the only game in America where there are two full staffs of commentators, play-by-play and cameras covering the game at the same time. Lehigh and Lafayette both sponsor TV b...

Today's water cooler topic is appropriate enough to me, for sure. Whether you're a Philadelphia Phillies fan (like my wife, 10-4!) or (like me) a Boston Red Sox fan (who stayed up late last night to witness another miracle comeback last night ), chances are you've been spending a lot of time in front of the TV. Now, I am not made of money. I don't have a TV like the one to my left, nor do I have the budget to take a trip up to Harvard this weekend. That means I'm going to be spending a lot of time on Saturday - my first one, as a matter fact - watching Patriot League games on TV and over the internet instead of watching it live. For Lehigh fans and fans of "that school in Easton" that live in the Philadelphia area, we're in luck this weekend. Locally, Channel 69 carries the Lehigh game at Harvard with a 12:30 p.m. start time, and RCN-4 and WPBH-60 carries the Lafayette game at Liberty starting at 3:30 p.m. - ensuring that my home-grown DVR will be...

The football season is almost upon us, and you want information. Information about Lehigh football, information about Lehigh (and other FCS games) on TV, and even the places where you can find out about the stuff that, well, isn't so well reported. This post will detail pretty much everything you'll ever need. At Lehigh, the sports fan is blessed with (of course) this blog - which gives a common place for news, game previews, and commentary. After you're done reading all the content on here (and at the official Lehigh athletics web site ), you might want to check out some of the other media out there. Thankfully, the Mountain Hawks are blessed with two local media outlets ( The Allentown Morning Call and the Easton Express-Times ), and one school paper ( The Brown & White ) with very good Lehigh football coverage. Additionally, I like to check out the Groller's Corner blog at the Morning Call (by Keith Groller) for those extra Lehigh tidbits that don't ma...

The Saints playoff win -- only the SECOND in franchise history -- was sweet to these fans, but more bittersweet for me (see my post from last week ). It's strange watching a game with two teams you like - the emotions all get tempered. RB Reggie Bush fumbles the ball - you feel a pang in the gut, but you don't throw the remote at the TV. Eagle head coach Andy Reid elects to punt on 4th-and-15 - you shake your head, but you don't bang your head against the wall. It's probably the closest I will ever get to feeling what it's like to be a non-fan - the person that gets dragged into sports who simply could care less. (Kind of like me at a NASCAR race.) Like the week leading up to the Saints/Eagles game, it's bittersweet. It's sad to see my wife - who now is starting to bleed Eagles colors - low because the Eagles lost. She doesn't hate the Saints, but she's no fan either. When Westbrook scored that TD in the third quarter, she was standing u...

Some explanation is in order here. Undoubtedly you're surfing over here to read about my analysis of Lehigh's basketball and wrestling teams this weekend, and don't worry, I'll get to that. But all week I've been struggling with my NFL allegiances. Let me explain. I grew up in the New York area, but moved overseas for about seven years of my life. As a youngster, my allegiances changed quite a bit - Giants, Jets, Redskins. While living overseas in high school, however, I finally settled on the Saints as my team. Why the Saints? Maybe because in 1986 they were on the rise; maybe because I had a lot of respect for coach Jim Mora and the Philadelphia Stars of the old USFL; maybe because I loved the "Dome Patrol" and their take-no-prisoners 3-4 defense; or maybe simply because my fathers' jazz musician contemporaries liked the team. As a result of this, I picked up on the Saints just in time to enjoy their first-ever winning season and playoff ...

Thought I was was going to simply shout out a big "Happy Holidays", eh, or talk about the big basketball games yesterday? Although I will spend some time doing both - and I'll also give a thought to some interesting postings for the rest of the year - the first order of business involves a bit of news you may not have heard about. Five days before Christmas, there was a press release from a fledgling network called the America Channel. It stated that they had entered a multi-year agreement to broadcast Patriot League sports starting in the 2007 season. Here are excerpts from the Patriot League press release: The Patriot League has signed a multi-year deal with a new national-sports broadcaster, The America Channel, Patriot League Executive Director Carolyn Schlie Femovich announced Wednesday. The arrangement, which will begin with the 2007-08 academic year, will bring additional exposure to the Patriot League, specifically in the sports of football, women's basketb...