Lehigh Football Nation

(Photo Credit: CLT Blog) No, this isn't a blog posting about Rep. Anthony Weiner 's latest Twitter dust-up, though you might think it from the title. But another sort of dust-up seems to be occurring in the world of FCS football programs. It's a different sort of strange tale than Mr. Weiner's - one of UNC-Charlotte football, Conference USA, the Atlantic Ten, and a bunch of athletic conferences that seem unwilling to add the 49ers to their conference lineup. It also offers a huge opportunity for another FCS conference as well. (more)

(Photo Credit: Lehigh Valley Live) It's that time of year again. This week, Lehigh announced their season ticket plans for the 2011 season, as well as their release schedule for chairback season tickets, mini plans, and individual tickets. It's the only way to guarantee a good view of crunching hits like this one at Murray Goodman Stadium - and the only way for alums to guarantee a seat at the 147th edition of "The Rivalry", to be played at Murray Goodman stadium. (more)

No, really, does it ever get old to make fun of Al Gore ? Seen here telling the world that manbearpig is indeed real (thanks to the folks at South Park ), his wooden yet passionate crusades, his irregular spasms of passion and energy, and even his exaggerated sighs in the 2000 campaign often make me laugh when I'm feeling down. What I love the most, though, is his movie An Inconvenient Truth . While you can debate whether a movie which genuinely talked about his father's tobacco plantations in terms of climate change (?) should have really won the Oscar, it's really the title that is the best part of the entire movie, which is largely an extremely PowerPoint presentation (with some footage of melting icebergs) that, frankly, I seriously doubt many people actually saw. It's the quintessential "oh-yeah-I-saw-that" movie that nobody saw, since most people like to be on the side of reducing climate change, not denying that it exists. Best of all, "An...

You probably didn't notice it this week - heck, I didn't - but Lehigh posted their game times for the 2011 season. All six home games will have a 12:30 kickoff time. No word, though, as to when the parking lots open and when they'll be open to pre-game tailgating. (more)

In retrospect, Jim Tressel was just an actor. Just like Bill Cosby , or Randy "Macho Man" Savage - an actor, playing a part. Wrestlers, of course, create bigger than life personas inside the ring of simplistic good-or-evil characters, often designed to deflect, like an illusionist, the reality behind what people were seeing.  That's the lot of the wrestler - and the actor. And Tressel - seen here, back in his days as a I-AA national championship winner with some of his dominating teams at Youngstown State - was no different from those who make their living making it seem like they're someone else. Whereas Macho Man wore crazy getups to make one doubt his sanity (in the ring), Tressel played the role of dad. A good, Christian dad, wearing suits and ties to games. Looking like a cross between Woody Hayes and Pat Riley . At once looking like a clean, quasi-militaristic vintage 1960's coach, exuding control.  He looked almost too much like the part of...

Say this about Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany - he knows how to get an audience.   Yesterday, Delany put himself front and center once again after picking up a topic that two NCAA commissioners, the late Myles Brand and Mark Emmert , had floated but never pushed - the idea that scholarships to play collegiate sports should include the "full cost of attendance". Currently, the "full cost of attendance" of an athletic scholarship includes tuition, dorms, classroom materials and other expenses. But Delany's endorsement of the proposal to include transportation and a stipend for personal expenses as scholarship money turned a whole lot of heads for a lot of different reasons. (more)

It's never news that Patriot League teams receive awards about their Academic Progress Rate from the NCAA. Since instituting the measure in 2005 to track athletes' progress in reaching graduation, Patriot League schools have consistently, alongside the Ivy League, been honored for the number of teams that have scored a 977 or above. (Broadly, it means that 97.7% of the the team has made academic progress towards their degree.) That Patriot League schools are consistently at the top or near the top of their institutional peers in APR rates is not news. Buried in the numbers, however, are two items that should not be ignored - a subtle change that has robbed the Patriot League of some national recognition, and a case for football scholarships that you might have missed. (more)