GAME PREVIEW: Alcorn State vs. North Carolina Central (MEAC/SWAC Challenge)
644 days… That’s how long it will be between games for NCCU when the Eagles take the field on Saturday against Alcorn State in the Cricket MEAC/SWAC Challenge.
Mountain Hawks Hope Return to (Semi-)Normalcy Leads To Winning Ways This Fall
At Lehigh there is the hope that less restrictive practices and a return to a normal fall practice will mean a return to more familiar winning ways.
OPINION: The NCAA’s Huge Supreme Court Loss Came From Hubris And Incompetent Leadership
Reading the entire 52 page decision, including the majority opinion written by Judge Neil Gorsuch and concurring opinion by Judge Brett Kavanaugh, one thought repeatedly returns to my mind: What the hell was the NCAA thinking?
Spring 2021 FCS Round 1 Playoff Preview: Holy Cross at South Dakota State
Holy Cross survived a season of long COVID pauses and a chaotic schedule the same place they were at the conclusion of the 2019 football season – Patriot League Champions. This time, however, they ended with a perfect 3-0 record.
Fearless Prediction: The FCS Playoff Bracket
After watching and following all spring, here’s my prediction of who’s in and who’s out of the FCS Playoff bracket this spring. The selection special is at 11:30 AM Sunday and will be unveiled on ESPNU.
QUICK RECAP: Hard Fought 156th Meeting Goes Lafayette’s Way, Prevail 20-13 over Lehigh
No matter when the game is played, when Lafayette and Lehigh get together on the gridiron, it almost always seems to be close and come down to a few plays.
History To Be Made By Lafayette and Lehigh’s Football Teams In 156th Meeting Between Rivals
This April, the same weekend as The Masters, Lehigh and Lafayette will be playing the first-ever Rivalry football game in the spring, a most atypical 156th meeting in the most-played college football game that’s simply called “The Rivalry”.
In 6-0 Spring Loss to Bucknell, Some Surprising Optimism As Focus Shifts to Lafayette
When you look at it in terms of the development of this team – and how this leads into next fall – there’s a lot more positives to draw than a normal fall season when the team is 0-2.
QUICK RECAP: Bucknell Wins The Patriot League South With a 6-0 Slugfest Victory over Lehigh
Two Ethan Torres FGs, one 26 yards, and one 24 yards, were enough to put the Bucknell Bison atop the Patriot League South Division, shutting out Lehigh at Murray Goodman Stadium 6-0.
College Sports Journal Patriot League Preview, 4/3/2021: More Shuffling As COVID-19 Continues To Scramble Schedules
An already-crazy Patriot League season still had some craziness left to reveal this week, as the 156th meeting between Lafayette and Lehigh was postponed due to a Tier 1 exposure in the Lafayette program.
College Sports Journal Patriot League Preview, 3/27/2021: Bucknell and Fordham Finally Get Their Spring Seasons Started
In a way it’s fitting during this strange season that two of the teams playing this weekend are in their season openers, while their opponents are coming off of two weeks off after winning their openers. It is a byproduct of this crazy Patriot League spring, and results in two fascinating games that are basically playoff games. And with no game film on Bucknell or Fordham, it feels like anything can happen.
New-Look Lehigh Shows Inexperience In 20-3 Defeat to Holy Cross
In a way, the opening drive which ended with zero Lehigh points summed up the entire afternoon.
QUICK RECAP: Defensive Slugfest Sees Holy Cross Over Lehigh 20-3
BETHLEHEM, PA – The Holy Cross Crusaders beat the Lehigh Mountain Hawks 20-3 at Murray Goodman Stadium in the first college football game contested by both schools in over 450 days.
GAME PREVIEW: Holy Cross at Lehigh, 3/13/2021
It is uncharted waters for both teams, with plenty of questions to answer playing an unprecedented Patriot League spring football season. But many of the principal contributors in that 24-17 game more than a year ago in Bethlehem will be suiting up tomorrow.
For Lehigh, The Sacrifices Are All Worth It For the Chance to Play Spring Football
For this Lehigh team, who has gone through this unique journey back to playing games that count, it feels like this weekend is almost as much a celebration of what football means to them as much as it is a Patriot League conference game against Holy Cross at Murray Goodman Stadium at noon this Saturday.
2021 CSJ Patriot League Spring Football Preview
It’s been a very, very long wait, but this weekend, finally, we have a weekend of Patriot League football to look forward to.
2021 CSJ NEC Spring Football Preview
On February 1st, Northeast Conference Commissioner Noreen Morris announced revised regular season competition and NEC Championship formats for fall-to-spring, winter and spring sports, which included football.
LEHIGH FOOTBALL: Excitement Is In The Air for an Historic Spring Football Season
“I’ve been very impressed with the enthusiasm and attitude across the board,” Lehigh head coach Tom Gilmore told me. “Getting the opportunity to be on the field and to be working towards competitive opportunities has really motivated everyone. It just feels different out there this semester. There’s an excitement in the air whenever we’re on the field.”
College Sports Journal FCS National Players of the Week-Feb. 19-21st
Five players including RB Quay Holmes from East Tennessee State, RB Pierre Strong Jr. from South Dakota State, QB Cameron Burston from Tarleton State, Devon Krzanowski from North Dakota, and Hayden Olsen from Tennessee Tech have been selected as the College Sports Journal All-Stars for the week ending Dec. 14, 2020 from the NCAA Division I FBS Group of Five schools.
OPINION: Eight Months After Championship Postponement, FCS Football Re-Emerges In Spring With As Much Uncertainty As Ever
It was supposed to be the triumphant return of FCS football competition, this time in the spring. The MEAC tried very hard, ingeniously, to celebrate an anniversary football season, even pushing it to the spring of 2021. But in the end, it couldn’t be saved.
The Long Wait Is Finally Over: Patriot League Announces Spring Sports Schedules, Including Football
Today, the Patriot League was the final FCS football conference to unveil their spring competition schedule to the public, as a part of their release announcing the schedules of twenty-two different sports being contested in the spring.
Lehigh Football Welcomes 11 New Recruits In An Early Signing Period Like No Other
The signing day celebrations sometimes came with masks, but that didn’t make them any less important or meaningful to a group of athletes that have had a senior year like no other.
OPINION: Lafayette And Lehigh’s Rivalry Put On Hold, As Athletes And Fans Wait in Agonizing Limbo
At the campuses at Lehigh and Lafayette, and the communities that surround them, there is a void in the third week in November, that most are trying to fill with virtual Rivalry activities and hope for a spring football season, making it not a cancelling of The Rivalry, but merely a delay to contest the game when it’s safer to have a more normal gameday experience.
Lehigh Pausing Practices And Training For Athletics Due To Concerns About Positive COVID Tests
On Tuesday, Lehigh University temporarily suspended training and practices for all sports programs after several Lehigh students tested positive for the coronavirus.
FLASHBACK: In 2006, A Day Of Reflection Ends With A Rivalry Football Game Between Fordham and Columbia
In 2006, I wrote two pieces for the website I-AA.org about a Fordham/Columbia game I attended. The two crosstown Rivals competed for an actual cup, the “Liberty Cup”, and it was a 9/11 themed rivalry game for a time.
Lehigh Football: In Fall Like No Other, Head Coach Tom Gilmore And Staff Use Time To “Fuel The Desire To Play”
For months, fans, players, and Lehigh football head coach Tom Gilmore knew that this game wasn’t going to happen on this day. But Gilmore is trying to make the best of a difficult situation.
Five Burning Questions I Have About A Spring Football Season For the Patriot League
I have five burning questions on the issue that might help to give clarity on what a spring season for the Patriot League might look like.
OPINION: Despite The Risks, The FCS Kickoff Game Is Going To Happen This Saturday
On August 29th, 2020, the Guardian Credit Union FCS Kickoff will be kicking off in Montgomery, Alabama, despite the risks of doing so.
The FCS Should Now Try To Play A Modified Season in the Spring. Here’s How You Do It.
Playing a radically shortened season of six “regular-season” games would allow for most teams to only have a season that is marginally longer than what they would do for spring practices. And from those games, it is possible to come up with an FCS Championship.
OPINION: Please Stop This Madness, NCAA Board of Governors, And Cancel Fall Championships For 2020
Despite the bungling and mismanagement of the NCAA, President Mark Emmert and the Board of Governors, they still have one final chance to get on the right side of history and submit to reality.
OPINION: Emmert’s FCS Ignorance Not Only Embarrasses Him, But Harms The Subdivision. He Should Be Thrown Out As President of the NCAA.
Emmert’s long silence about the subject of FCS football was broken today, where he showed himself to be as equally ignorant as he is unable to stick up for the athletes ostensibly under his charge.
OPINION: Patriot League Fall Sports Cancellation The Right Thing to Do, But A Terrible (Rivalry) Loss For the Community
Hope is not a strategy, and the truth is any form of national strategy has failed in an effort to have college football this fall. In a community like the Lehigh Valley, it’s a crushing loss to the coronavirus.
OPINION: Lack Of Leadership Everywhere Is Why We Won’t Have College Football In The Fall
Anyone who wants to know why we won’t have college football this fall ought to sit in on their local school board meeting to understand exactly why.
ANALYSIS: As Ivy League Contemplates Moving to Spring, NCAA Needs to Clarify Whether An FCS Championship Will Happen
The Patriot League’s dilemmas, whether the rest of FCS admits it or not, is the FCS’ dilemmas. And as we inch closer to an alleged 2020 college football season, the NCAA needs to make some things very clear before a huge mess happens.
OPINION: Let’s Stop Pretending College Football Will Start On Time
The writing has been on the wall for months, but many seem unable or unwilling to accept what is now reality. The college football season will not be starting on time, if it happens at all.
Ivy League Football Plans Would Leave Huge Gaps In FCS Football Schedules
If these are the only two plans that are actively being considered by the Ivy League, it means that, effectively, all out-of-conference games involving Ivy League opponents are cancelled for the fall.
Patriot League Executive Director Jennifer Heppel: “This is how we envision to be the best way to do it at this moment in time”
The challenges of reopening fall sports is still very considerable, to put it mildly, but the Patriot League president’s statement seemed to move the conversation forward as to what fall sports might realistically look like.
Patriot League Council of Presidents Announces Guidance On Fall Competition, Including Travel, Preseason Camp Restrictions
The Patriot League Office announced on Monday guidance regarding the 2020 fall competition, a list of principles to “guide the development of a Patriot League 2020 Athletics Plan.”
Once You Start Believing In Pure Imagination, College Football’s Handling of Covid-19 Makes Perfect Sense
The only possible explanation as to why college football has undertaken such a fairy-tale response to this pandemic is that Willy Wonka is running this show for the NCAA and the schools of the Power Five.
2020 College Sports Journal FCS Preseason All-America Team Announced
Sixty student-athletes in the NCAA Division I Football’s Championship Subdivision have been named to the 2020 College Sports Journal Preseason FCS All-America Team.
OPINION: Opening College Sports Requires Knowing Too Much That We Don’t Know
In my opinion, there is a lot of recklessness out there, with plenty of blame to go around.
Lehigh Football: Technology Allows Team Navigate Unique Stay-At-Home Spring Season
Lehigh head coach Tom Gilmore will be the first person to tell you that he’d prefer to have a regular spring assessment season for his football team.
How Could A 2020 College Football Season Happen?
Though it might not be the time to make definitive plans to tailgate at Michigan/Ohio State this November, the latest news on mitigation strategies for COVID-19 inform potential strategies on trying to form answers some of the big questions still out there.
How To Have A Late College Football Season In A COVID-19 World
In the past, college football has survived through outbreaks of disease and mass disruptions, and how the sport handled those circumstances provide a possible roadmap to a late post-COVID-19 football season. Looking to the past, how could we adapt that to today?
Unprecedented: Inside the Patriot League Perspective On Decisions To Suspend Competition In Wake of COVID-19 Pandemic
It was the weekend of March 8th where a slew of institutional decisions were made that really put Ms. Heppel on high alert.
Lehigh Football: Tom Gilmore: “These decisions are unprecedented in response to unprecedented circumstances.”
It was an historic week that nobody could have foreseen.
2020 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Team Preview: Winthrop Eagles
Entering the Big South conference as the 2 seed behind Radford, the Highlanders’ stunning loss to Hampton in the semis meant the Eagles hosted the Pirates in the Big South Championship game, handling Hampton 76-68 to capture its 12th Men’s Basketball title.
OPINION: Watch Out, North Dakota State: The Big 10 Is Coming For Your Trey Lance With Their Proposed One Time Transfer Rule
If the Big 10 and the Power 5 have their way, however, the Trey Lance’s of the world won’t be sticking around at FCS schools like North Dakota State for very long.
CSJ’s Ranking of the Patriot League’s 2020 Football Recruiting Classes: The Patsy Ratings
I’m proud to unveil this year’s edition of the Patsy Ratings.
CSJ 2019 CFP Championship Sugar Bowl Preview: Clemson vs. LSU, How To Watch and Fearless Predictions
The Tigers were dominant all season and got here by winning the SEC Crown by defeating Georgia and by boat racing Oklahoma in the CFP Semifinal. Coach Ed Orgeron has put together a team that has been very good on both sides of the ball.
