Lehigh Football Nation

As Patriot League fans, it seems like many discussions about our league end up with a discussion about the "place of athletics" at our universities. It's a by-product of the rules that our schools have chosen to follow in terms of athletics, following in the footsteps of the Ivy League to ensure academic standards. What I haven't seen before, though, is a published discussion about these issues with the difference-makes in a college administration. This forum in the Holy Cross alumni magazine winter issue does just that with Holy Cross' president (Fr. Michael C. McFarland, S.J.), influential vice-presidents (like Frank Vellaccio), the athletic director (Dick Regan) and a host of other people. The fascinating four-page look at athletics, including a frank discussion of football scholarships, is a must-read for many reasons, not least because it articulates the thoughts of the person whose decision matters the most in Rev. McFarland. I'd encourage you to read a...

Last week, I talked a little bit about some of the realities in regards to athletic recruiting in the Patriot League in today's world. If you hit the link above, you'll see an in-depth talk about the Academic Index (or AI) used by the Patriot League (modeled after the Ivy League's own AI), as well as a talk about the shrinking pool of athletic recruits available to all Ivy and Patriot League schools, and some of the idiosyncrasies that scholarships offer Patriot League institutions in our sports that allow them. Today I'll talk more about the Ivy and Patriot League's AI system, and how it fits in with the big world of football recruiting on a national level. But first, it's worth talking about donuts. Donuts, Chuck? What the Hey!?! Not only are donuts tasty (and against all odds are a popular breakfast "food"), the best way to describe athletic recruiting in terms of the Ivies and Patriot League teams is using the analogy of donuts. Let's think...

With every single one of Lehigh's winter sports teams laying a humongous egg this weekend, and with the reality of Lehigh's recruiting class now fully digested by all you Lehigh football fans out there, it's time to delve into one of the favorite offseason topics: the state of Patriot League football, the types of football recruits we can get, and what steps to take, if any, to move forward. It's a complicated subject, to put it mildly. That's why I'm subdividing this into a "series" of blog postings to go over the state of the league. Part I will introduce about the Patriot League recruiting and compare it against the Ivy League in particular, Part II will consider football recruiting against full-scholarship and partial-scholarship FBS and FCS schools, and Part III will consider where to go from here. Who Are We, Really? The Patriot League is a Division I sports league that competes in Football Championship Series (FCS, formerly known as I-AA) and ...