Lehigh Football Nation

The Patriot League just issued the following statement : Center Valley, Pa. - The Patriot League Council of Presidents endorsed and finalized a set of recommendations for revising the League's academic index to provide more consistency in the application of the index and internal equity among member institutions. The revisions will go in place for student-athletes that will enter Patriot League institutions in the fall of 2009. "The Patriot League is committed to being the ideal home for outstanding student-athletes," said Bucknell University President Brian C. Mitchell, Chair of the Council of Presidents. "These recommendations provide a higher level of consistency and clarity that strengthens not only the League but also the programs of every one of our member institutions." The revised index will also enhance admissions and athletic competitiveness of programs externally while maintaining the integrity of the League's founding principles. Included in th...

"Oi... My Good Heavens man. What are you THINKING? Loyola in the Patriot League in All Sports... including a football team?" That's what St. Ignatius of Loyola (founder of the Society of Jesus) seems to be saying in the picture to my left - and I think there are a fair amount of people out there who might agree with him. But is it really as outlandish as all that? The rumors are flying on messageboards that Loyola might be looking for a new conference. The Greyhounds currently reside in the MAAC in all sports - and despite the fact that they don't currently sponsor it, football may be part of the equation. So what's the truth? Could there be any truth to the rumors? Let's look at a tale of the tape and see what we can figure out. The Tale Of The Tape Loyola College is a private Jesuit school located in Baltimore, Maryland of approximately 3,500 undergraduates. As a Jesuit school, they fit perfectly in the Patriot League on several levels: they are a...

No, Virginia, I didn't know that "Athletic Turf News" really does exist. But it does: and yes, they are showing the big news that Lehigh is upgrading the natural grass that has been in place since even before Murray Goodman Stadium existed. (Actually, those lazy reporters over at ATN actually just cribbed the report from Lehigh's website.) An entire photo gallery of the renovation lives here (and that's where I got the great shot to my right). Cheer up, Lehigh fans: you don't need to renew your subscription, here's the scoop right here: "This project is part of our University's ongoing commitment to facility maintenance, and had been planned for some time,” Lehigh Dean of Athletics Joe Sterrett ’76 explained. “Goodman Stadium is a distinctive setting for football, however, the grass turf and subsurface had reached the end of a long (40 years-plus) life.” He continued, “The availability of modern irrigation and drainage systems and the compar...

Yep, it's that time of year again. June, the toughest time of year to be a Lehigh football fan. The trickle of news slows to a crawl... except here at Lehigh Football Nation, where we keep our eyes and ears open for any morsel of news. For my part, I'm doing plenty to keep the Patriot League newsworthy: stirring up the pot on the FCS message board on Any Given Saturday , or posting information on the Lehigh Voy messageboard forums . That's in between time on the day job, writing for the FCS Yearbook (coming soon), and catching up on my FCS viewing (I still need to finish up watching the DVD of the "Goodman 20 Greatest Moments" ) and reading (I am finishing up my signed copy of "Magic On The Mountain" , by David Coulson of The Sports Network , the story of Appalachian State's FCS title run in 2005). Did I mention the closing on our new house will be later this month, too? The latest developments involve Lehigh senior DT Brian Jackson getting onto...

If it's summer, that means the latest college football magazines have come out with their rankings of FCS schools. The Any Given Saturday community and Lindy's College Football have unveiled theirs yesterday - and it's as if the Patriot League barely existed. Now, I'm not going to be a homer and say I expected Lehigh (who was 5-6 last year) to be ranked in the Top 25 or anything. But the omission of Fordham, the winner of the Patriot League last year from Lindy's entire Top 25 was disheartening, not to mention front-runners Colgate (boasting the nation's leading rusher last year in rising senior RB Jordan Scott ) and Holy Cross (who will have rising senior QB Dominic Randolph returning next year, who almost put up a point-a-minute on Lehigh in a 59-10 shellacking last year). The Any Given Saturday poll had the Patriot League little better, with Fordham at #23 (and, for good measure, Yale at #24). Both were ranked behind SIX CAA teams: James Madison (#2), Ric...

Yes, Virginia, that picture of the large rubber check with all the zeros on it is good news about Lehigh. With a big announcement, Lehigh president Alice Gast announced the largest-ever gift to Lehigh last week: a mind-boggling 34.2 million dollar check from the estate of Donald Stabler ('30). Sports fans know him as the gentleman whose work and donations made the Athletics complex and Stabler Arena possible. According to president Gast, that will be able to "double or triple" the number of Stabler Scholars that are currently attending Lehigh, meaning that somewhere between 30 and 60 new scholarships will be able to be endowed through this gift alone. It's all good. Such scholarships don't only throw the endowment well past $1 billion dollars - it gives more and more students a chance at a Lehigh education. ******************* Two new prospectives have been linked to Lehigh University: Red Bank Catholic LB Anthony Lubischer and William Penn HS (York, PA) FB/L...

They fought hard on Sunday, but after a 7-4 throttling of Princeton, the softball team fell just short against UMass 3-1. Despite the mild disappointment of the elimination, the win over Princeton meant the trip to Amherst was a success for the Hawks with a win over their fierce Ivy League rival, and overall signified a return Lehigh softball dominance. Congratulations - and with junior P Lisa Sweeeney (pictured) returning next year, you've got to believe we've got a great chance to get back to the regionals next year. Softball's return to glory clinched one of the more important trophies for the Mountain Hawks: a win over "that school in Easton" in the President's Cup standings . Overall Lehigh finished 5th (a distant 15 points behind 4th place Army and 41 points behind trophy winners Bucknell). But Lehigh trounced that Easton school: 79.75 overall points (vs. 69.25), 37 for men's sports (vs. 31), and 42.75 for women's sports (vs. 37.75). Now al...