Patriot League Scheduling Upwards

[DFW HOYA]

Lehigh becomes the sixth PL team to announce I-A games over the next four seasons:

http://www.fbschedules.com/2015/03/navy-midshipmen-2018-non-conference-football-schedule/


Elsewhere (through 2018):

Bucknell
at Army 2015

Colgate
at Navy 2015
at Syracuse 2016

Fordham:
at Army 2015
at Navy 2016
at Army 2017
at Charlotte 2018

Georgetown:
None

Holy Cross:
at Connecticut 2017
at Boston College 2018

Lafayette:
at Army 2016
at Army 2018

Lehigh:
at Navy 2018

[GateRaider63]

While not officially announced, Colgate is tentatively scheduled to play Buffalo in 2017 and Boston College in 2018.

http://www.salemnews.com/sports/prep-s-rockett-blasting-off-to-colgate-to-continue-football/article_dc6c3765-716f-5098-8f15-1405d7ac0770.html?mode=jqm

[ramMan]

In an interview on WFUV this afternoon, Fordham's athletic director, Dave Roach, said we have games scheduled against South Florida, Tulsa, Hawaii and Charlotte from 2018 to 2021.
If I'm not mistaken, our future FBS opponents are:

2015 Army
2016 Navy
2017 Army
2018 South Florida
2019 Tulsa
2020 Hawaii
2021 Charlotte

[DFW HOYA]

In an interview on WFUV this afternoon, Fordham's athletic director, Dave Roach, said we have games scheduled against South Florida, Tulsa, Hawaii and Charlotte from 2018 to 2021.
If I'm not mistaken, our future FBS opponents are:

2015 Army
2016 Navy
2017 Army
2018 South Florida
2019 Tulsa
2020 Hawaii
2021 Charlotte

Very good news for Fordham. Great offer to next year's recruits: a trip to Hawaii as seniors.

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

If you're going to play FBS games those are the right ones! xthumbsupx

[Lehigh Football Nation]

I hear that Lehigh is also in the works of trying to schedule some other FBS teams in 2017 and possibly 2016 as well, but who they are is still a mystery at this point.

[Bill]

Ball State xlolx

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

I'm both happy and sad Temple's name is listed. If we're going to play FCS schools the PL schools are logical choice. Temple will win considerably more than we lose yet the games will generally be competitive. Everyone's happy :D

[Gangtackle11]

I'm both happy and sad Temple's name is listed. If we're going to play FCS schools the PL schools are logical choice. Temple will win considerably more than we lose yet the games will generally be competitive. Everyone's happy :D

Although not official the word is Temple & Villanova have 2017/18 games at the Linc.

[carney2]

I'm counting 8 games with Army and Navy thru 2018. No one can fault the academies for blowing off their Patriot League brethren anymore. Just one more thing that scholarships have done for Patriot League football.

[Go...gate]

I hear that Lehigh is also in the works of trying to schedule some other FBS teams in 2017 and possibly 2016 as well, but who they are is still a mystery at this point.

Penn State, perhaps?

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I'm counting 8 games with Army and Navy thru 2018. No one can fault the academies for blowing off their Patriot League brethren anymore. Just one more thing that scholarships have done for Patriot League football.

Agreed. It is very good for the conference.

[Model Citizen]

Other than Columbia, what Ivies - if any - are being dropped by Patriot Leaguers to make room for these games?

[Bill]

Good to drop Columbia now...May be scary once Bags gets a hold of them! :)

[RichH2]

Penn State, perhaps?

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Agreed. It is very good for the conference.
PSU was on the agenda before Franklin came in. Unlikely now. Syracuse and LU were in talks . No idea how that worked out. Wish list for me would include Rutgers,Army and Temple. We do seem to be lagging a bit in the FBS race. :)

[Go Green]

Very good news for Fordham. Great offer to next year's recruits: a trip to Hawaii as seniors.

That's one way of looking at it. Yale got creamed by Hawaii in 1987 62-10, but won the Ivy title two years later. Maybe it did help with recruiting.

[CFBfan]

PSU was on the agenda before Franklin came in. Unlikely now. Syracuse and LU were in talks . No idea how that worked out. Wish list for me would include Rutgers,Army and Temple. We do seem to be lagging a bit in the FBS race. :)

that's because Coen is afraid to compete against good teams....at least that's my take based on previous schedules that have been to weak

[Lehigh Football Nation]

that's because Coen is afraid to compete against good teams....at least that's my take based on previous schedules that have been to weak

xrolleyesx Yeah, JMU, Villanova and New Hampshire are really weak teams. xlolx

People who actually watch the games know that at varying times over the years Yale and Princeton have had great teams that would give any FCS school a run for their money. Harvard has teams like that every year, too.

People also, for some reason, discount the presence of Liberty on Lehigh's schedules as well.

[Ivytalk]

Good to see our Patriot compatriots headed in the right direction. Wish the Ivies would do the same.

[RichH2]

Good to see our Patriot compatriots headed in the right direction. Wish the Ivies would do the same.
Does seem that Ivies are going in different directions,some scheduling up others down. IMO,not a good long term scenario for Ivies.

[CFBfan]

xrolleyesx Yeah, JMU, Villanova and New Hampshire are really weak teams. xlolx

People who actually watch the games know that at varying times over the years Yale and Princeton have had great teams that would give any FCS school a run for their money. Harvard has teams like that every year, too.

People also, for some reason, discount the presence of Liberty on Lehigh's schedules as well.

yup, that's why a 1 loss season left LU on the outside looking in at the playoffs, weak schedule and unwilling to play a 12th game

[RichH2]

yup, that's why a 1 loss season left LU on the outside looking in at the playoffs, weak schedule and unwilling to play a 12th game
And so we should ignore the current schedules ,to concentrate on one schedule you need to highlight to make your point. Like too many today,you only credit "facts" you like and ignore those you dont.xbangxxbangxx

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

Most of these games are no more difficult than a one against a top-shelf FCS program. The stadiums are bigger, the payouts are bigger but competition is rather relative. I like them though in general just as long as Lehigh, Colgate, Lafayette, Fordham etc. are still going to schedule UNH, Villanova, JMU, W&M. I'd like to see Lehigh play NDSU, UNI, YSU (MVFC) and Wofford, Furman, Chatty, The Citadel, VMI (SoCon) teams.

A trip to Stambaugh Stadium and YSU is long overdue for a PL team.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

It remains a travesty that a 10-1 team with 10 Division I wins did not qualify for an at-large bid to the FCS playoffs, the only 10 D-I win school ever denied the honor since the playoffs expanded from 16 teams. My anger has not lessened that Wofford with a win over one of the worst schools in D-II that season, Lincoln, got in with what should have been considered a 7-3 record over a fellow FCS team with 10 D-I wins. I'm not mad at Wofford, I'm mad at a process that apparently could not figure out that 10 D-I wins has more value than 7.

Lehigh's schedule that season was a confluence of events that had nothing to do with their scheduling policy. If memory serves Villanova cancelled their series with us, meaning Lehigh had to scramble to fill the schedule with a quality opponent, which ended up being Liberty. Liberty was a good, young team, who ended up co-champions of the Big South that season, but started 0-3, meaning that Lehigh's win over them barely registered nationally. CCSU, two years removed from a NEC co-championship, suddenly cratered. Columbia, who had just hired coach Pete Mangurian, had just started their descent into madness. Princeton was coming off a 1-9 season, but their young team got very good as the season went along, ending at .500 and sweeping Yale and nationally-ranked Harvard for the first time in years.

It was a perfect storm that Lehigh could not have scheduled itself out of. There were no FBS teams knocking on the door to schedule a non-counter, no team willing to reschedule a FBS beatdown/payday, and only one good team that would even fill our schedule at the last moment. There was no Delaware or Richmond there to schedule. I take great exception to any insinuation that Lehigh was somehow ducking better competition in that season, or any season. But any fool who sees JMU, Villanova and New Hampshire on Lehigh's schedule the past six years can see that. In fact, 2012 was the only season that a CAA team wasn't on the schedule for the last decade.

Before 2004, Lehigh played UConn in 2003 (FBS), Buffalo in 2002 (FBS), making it once in the last 13 years since Lehigh didn't have a CAA or FBS team on the football schedule.

[CFBfan]

And so we should ignore the current schedules ,to concentrate on one schedule you need to highlight to make your point. Like too many today,you only credit "facts" you like and ignore those you dont.xbangxxbangxx

kinda like the obama admin !!

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

Lehigh has generally played great schedules over the last 15-25 years. The 2012 slate was clearly the exception rather than the norm. Lehigh could have won a game or two in the playoffs (with a favorable draw) that year had they got in. As it is, you can't reverse history. Most years I think 9-2 safely gets Lehigh in....

[CFBfan]

Lehigh has generally played great schedules over the last 15-25 years. The 2012 slate was clearly the exception rather than the norm. Lehigh could have won a game or two in the playoffs (with a favorable draw) that year had they got in. As it is, you can't reverse history. Most years I think 9-2 safely gets Lehigh in....

JMU was really the only "play up" game last year, after that you had 3 Ivies....maybe MAYBE you can count Yale but Penn and the Tigers NO!

[JimLU]

Couple of issues with CFBfan's remarks regarding Lehigh schedule strength; a) Yale beat Army, so I don't get the "maybe MAYBE". And on the issue of potential FBS games, my understanding was that discussions were underway with that team from State College when the BIG issued a strong suggestion to members to avoid FCS games. That supposedly scuttled the idea, not Coen's concern of making visual contact with Cale Sanderson.

[PAllen]

I hear you LFN. My only gripe is that we should be playing one CAA AND one regional FBS every year, or at least two CAAs. I'm not a fan of the NEC and PFL games that the PL schedules. Once in a while is fine for those types of games, but (except Georgetown) PL teams should not be scheduling those games every year.

[Go Green]

Wish the Ivies would do the same.

You first, Harvard.

[RichH2]

I hear you LFN. My only gripe is that we should be playing one CAA AND one regional FBS every year, or at least two CAAs. I'm not a fan of the NEC and PFL games that the PL schedules. Once in a while is fine for those types of games, but (except Georgetown) PL teams should not be scheduling those games every year.
2CAAs .2 Ivies.and an NEC opener good basic OOC. A FBS every other year. That way each class gets 2 FBS games in their 4 games. At the rate Joe is going looks like he is figuring on one FBS for each class. Wouldn't mind an occasional SoCon or Liberty.

[Go Lehigh TU owl]

JMU was really the only "play up" game last year, after that you had 3 Ivies....maybe MAYBE you can count Yale but Penn and the Tigers NO!

After JMU Lehigh played the eventual #1 overall seed in the playoffs. Not too many teams start the year with 2 eventual playoff....

[Go...gate]

Lehigh has generally played great schedules over the last 15-25 years. The 2012 slate was clearly the exception rather than the norm. Lehigh could have won a game or two in the playoffs (with a favorable draw) that year had they got in. As it is, you can't reverse history. Most years I think 9-2 safely gets Lehigh in....

I'h showing my advanced age, but it goes back further than that. Remember that Lehigh was playing Rutgers in the 1970's when RU was a very strong program. LU also played, in the "University Division", Army, Colgate (a I-A Independent which was no slouch) and the Ivies (when the Ivies were I-A), not to mention Lafayette (also a I-A Independent). Lehigh also played several of the so-called "College Division" schools, like Delaware, C.W. Post, Hofstra and others. The "College Division" moniker could be deceiving, as those schools were perennially good.

[Go...gate]

I hear you LFN. My only gripe is that we should be playing one CAA AND one regional FBS every year, or at least two CAAs. I'm not a fan of the NEC and PFL games that the PL schedules. Once in a while is fine for those types of games, but (except Georgetown) PL teams should not be scheduling those games every year.

Colgate has never played a PFL school. The NEC scheduling was commenced by our previous Athletic Director, who had followed a similar defeatist course at Brown. In his view, Colgate (1) should get home-and-home schedules with all non-conference football opponents; and (2) could not compete with the vast majority of 63-scholarship schools. Thankfully, he is gone.

[JimLU]

Small correction on Lehigh & Lafayette's classification. According to my memory and College Football Data Warehouse Lehigh was A1 (Univeristy Division) from 1938 to 1947. Lafayette A1 (University Div) 1938-1950. Both went College Division and subsequently A-II in '48 and '51 respectively. Both however played many low level University division teams such as Rutgers, Colgate, Holy Cross and the Ivies who were also University Division until they went A-II in 1981. It was understood there was a big difference between the likes of Penn State & OSU and the Colgates of the University Division. And not much between the Lehighs and the Rutgers of the day. I admit my memory of 1938 - 1950 is a little foggy as I was born in 1951.

[Ivytalk]

You first, Harvard.

Saving that one up all winter, Green?xcoffeex