Lehigh Football Nation

(Photo Credit: Michael Conroy/AP via the New York TImes) In the end, it stopped short of the "death penalty", but in ways, it was tougher than the penalties the NCAA delivered to SMU football back in the 1980s. In NCAA commissioner Mark Emmert 's 9AM press conference this morning, he stopped short of forcing the disbanding of the Nittany Lion football program for a period of years, thanks to the Freeh report which concluded that key people in the football program, at a bare minimum, covered up strong accusations of child rape. He instead imposed a web of different punishments on Penn State in order to make an example of their program, however, which was unquestionably the correct course of action for the NCAA.

Most casual Lehigh football fans recognize a lot of schools on the schedule. I mean, everyone knows who Princeton and Columbia are - they're Ivy League schools. Liberty?  Not only were they members of the FCS Top 25 last year, they have a decidedly national reputation as a conservative, faith-based institution of higher learning, where Willard Romney makes speeches in the run-up to the Presidential election. But aside from knowing where Central Connecticut State is generally located - hint, it's about 20 minutes southwest of Hartford - I think most Lehigh fans might be able to be forgiven if they look at September 8th on the schedule and say, "Who are these guys?" The answer to that question is that the Blue Devils have tasted a lot of success over the last six years under head coach Jeff McInerney , with signature wins over Georgia Southern and Lehigh, both on the road. And with a newly-revamped Arute Field, which will be able to hold upwards of 6,500 fa...

(Photo Credit: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images via the Morning Call) The Oscars?  Not so much, anymore. The Grammys?  Boring as hell to me.  The Tonys?  Are you kidding me? That was my general reaction to all the national awards shows going into this summer - and don't get me started about the 'B' list of such shows, like the Golden Globes, MTV Music Awards, or the like.  (Even the Razzies don't really have my interest level anymore.) But then again, I've never had a personal interest in any of them. You see, ESPN's sports-themed awads show, the ESPYs, nominated Lehigh in their "Best Upset" category with - perhaps you've heard? - their victory over No. 2 seeded Duke in the NCAA Tournament. And, suddenly, and unsurprisingly, ESPYs-mania takes over the Nation.

There's only a couple months until the beginning of the 2012 season, and it's time to get to know Lehigh's first opponent on this year's slate: Monmouth University.  (September 1st, 12:30PM, Murray Goodman Stadium, Bethlehem). What is known, indeed, about the Hawks? They've had one football coach throughout their young history - Kevin Callahan , now in his 19th year at the reins. They've had some true NFL-caliber talent to go through their ranks, most notably Cowboy WR Miles Austin . But what else do we know about this nearby university?

This Sunday, I woke up with my family and did something I don't usually do. I didn't turn on the computer. Didn't check my emails.  Didn't check Facebook.  Didn't check Twitter.  Didn't check the latest news about college football.  Didn't check my fantasy teams.  Didn't check the message boards for the latest dirt. In other words, I didn't go "online" - something that is becoming very, very unusual for me in this day and age. We live in a very strange world right now, where we're encouraged to spend time offline - yet much true knowledge is "online".  In my situation it's especially strange, where I try to figure out - what's the happy medium?

Nobody outside of the inner circle saw this one coming. With most dimestore pundits ( including this one ) thinking that Boston University might be a target of the CAA's effort to solve their current woes, Boston University president Robert A. Brown and the eight presidents of the Patriot League pulled the trigger on a shocker of a conference move. It's a move that was years in the making - yet proceeded at the speed of the winds of rapid change that are coarsing through collegiate athletics. It's a move that doesn't make immediate sense - yet makes perfect sense, the more you look at it. But more than anything, the move, which will take place on July 1st, 2013, is a throwback to how conference expansion used to be.

With the best Commodore VIC-20 graphics available for the cover art, Jefferson Starship 's "Winds of Change" album seriously underwhelmed pretty much everyone at the time, yielding few hits. Some folks think just because collegiate realignment has yielded few hits on the Patriot League hit parade, it doesn't really matter to them. I mean, what is it to the Patriot League if the CAA comes back from the jaws of the dragon, or if Conference USA is out of control, or the Atlantic Ten is simply dreaming that the Big East basketball conference breaks apart? As I started to mention yesterday , it very much does matter.  In the case of Georgetown, their TV deal with the Big East could very much affect the availability of aid for other sports programs, including football. In the case of Fordham, the Patriot League's other affiliate program in football, the winds of change are, without question, even more pronounced.