Harvard head coach, Tim Murphy’s scathing indictment of Patriot League recruiting and, by extension, quality of play, continues to reverberate around the League. We will, for the moment, side step that land mine and move on to the part of the season where the halt and the lame have at each other for no reason other than to win a very hollow championship and move on to annihilation and embarrassment in the postseason.

We are guaranteed that three Patriot League teams will emerge victorious this week. Or are we (see Game of the Week, below)?

COLGATE @ HOLY CROSS
FORDHAM @ GEORGETOWN
BUCKNELL @ LAFAYETTE

Bye*: LEHIGH

Game of the Week: Bucknell @ Lafayette. With a nod to what coulda/shoulda been in Woo (but is now pretty much a “so what?!”) all eyes should be on Easton to see if Lafayette can get its League mojo working again to unbelievably remain undefeated in the League and in first place. Perhaps the big question is whether these two defenses, going against invisible offenses, can produce the first - and theoretically impossible - 0-0 tie since the NCAA implemented its overtime rules for D-1 in 1996. The last 0-0 tie in D-1 college football was 1983’s Oregon-Oregon State game which featured 11 turnovers [6 fumbles and 5 interceptions] and 4 missed field goals, but no overtime. This one would require equal, but less obvious, ineptitude.

*With five weeks to go, a Patriot League team will have a Bye in each of those five weeks, demonstrating how difficult it is to schedule an OOC game late in the season. An odd number (7 teams) doesn’t work for League scheduling.