Lehigh Football Nation

(Photo Credit: The Providence Journal) Two days ago, I blogged about Rhode Island's thoughts on leaving the CAA in order to join the NEC . Yesterday, I talked about the impacts on that move on the CAA and NEC .  Today, I'll talk about whether the Patriot League is affected at all by this move by Rhode Island - because as things stand right now with the league and their stance on offering largely need-based aid, it doesn't appear to be. The problems are neatly summed up by a member of the Providence Journal 's URI Forum , a meeting place for fans of the URI program.  Reaction to the Rams' football move to the NEC have been mixed there, and some members were motivated to ask the Rams' athletic director, Thorr Bjorn , about his thought process.  He was specifically asked, "why the NEC?  Wouldn't the Patriot League be a better option for URI, with games versus A-10 leaguemate Fordham and nearby Holy Cross?" "I would have preferred URI going...

(Photo courtesy the South County Independent) Yesterday, I blogged about Rhode Island's thoughts on leaving the CAA in order to join the NEC .  Today, I'm blogging about the effects of their move on the rest of Northeast football - including the Patriot League. Interestingly,  Northeastern's discontinuation of football was certainly bad news, and Hofstra's president pulling a "Sonny Corleone in the tollbooth" on football a week later was also a seismic event concerning football in this area. But URI's decision could have an even greater impact in the long run for all three Northeastern FCS football conferences. It could have an impact that affects directly or indirectly all three conferences: the NEC, CAA, and Patriot League. (more)

I learned one thing, really, on my ten day vacation from my day job, blogging and writing: in college football, there truly is no offseason. I planned a vacation in the mountains right before the Fourth of July, thinking that it's generally a dead time for college sports.  I'm not alone, either.  Most sportswriters do the same thing. So what happens the week I'm gone?  Mike Szoztak, the longtime Rhode Island beat writer from the Providence Journal , drops the bombshell that the Rams are looking at moving their football team from the CAA to the NEC starting with the 2013 season. Ram sightings at Delaware's Tub, seen in this picture, might be less and less frequent. At the beginning of 2009, the CAA had twelve teams and had split into North and South divisions. The main discussion point back then was how they were going to be able to accommodate Old Dominion and Georgia State in their powerhouse conference - and how many at-large bids they might have in the futur...

The NCAA, you have to admit, has not had a very good month.  After all, they were strangely invisible when the Big Ten - via Fox Media - was threatening to tear Football Championship Subdivision asunder with a proposal to expand by as many as five schools . Unfortunately, last Friday we found out exactly what the NCAA was doing all this time when the Big XII was threatening to implode and we very nearly found ourselves with a Pac-16. The NCAA, via a Friday press release, was letting us know that FCS football had an expense problem. So much so, in fact, that they spent the last month reinterpreting a rule that will affect - yes - " The Rivalry " if it indeed comes to pass. (more)

Some fans of Eastern universities complain about boring schedules, especially in September. Lehigh's schedule is anything but boring, though, in 2010. It's time for Lehigh fans to mentally wrap our heads around the following truth: the Mountain Hawks' home opener is against none other than the defending FCS National Champions. Lehigh has already opened their season ticket plans for 2010, and soon will make some individual games available for purchase. But aside from the obvious buzz around the game versus "that school in Easton", what could be the biggest out-of-conference game in recent memory will be on September 11th when Lehigh plays their home opener versus Villanova. (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)

Usually, the analogy of dominoes is overdone.  But it's hard to escape it now that we know that Colorado has elected to join the conference formerly known as the Pac Ten , and Nebraska has elected to join the conference formerly known as the Big Ten . Where might other dominoes fall?  Will the Big XII cease to exist - or survice?  Will the Big East crumble, too - or expand by four (or more) teams?  Will the Mountain West become a Western counterpoint to the Pac-N - or see its best teams lured to that conference? It's a crazy, dangerous world out there right now, especially if you think you have all the answers on FBS conference realignment. But it's a good time - with a break in the action, sort of - where we can see where this all is could lead. It could be the start of megaconferences, the involvement of Congress - or not much else. (more)