Entering the second week of October, the Patriot League has a lot of questions ahead of it. Colgate is 5-0 while the rest of the league is a combined 6-27. Over and above the sheer numbers, this thread will hopefully examine the root causes of the league's underperformance and suggest some concrete steps to remedy the situation.
This could take a while, of course.
Georgetown: "We play where we do not compete, and compete where we do not play."
Varying emphasis among the programs.
Roster limits are unrealistic.
Since THEY happen to be the academic and athletic benchmarks that we seem to always return home to, perhaps the title of this thread should be "What's Right With the Ivy League"....
“If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain.”
$$$$$$Originally Posted by Bill
Too much rumination and perseveration ?
"Knowledge is Good" Emil Faber
Coaching and to a lesser extent roster limits.
LFN,
I just went and reviewed endowment information...and I almost threw up. Some quick math reveals that if you add up the ENTIRE football playing endowments of the PL, they fall somewhere between Cornell at $6.8 billion and Columbia at $10 billion (but much closer to Cornell). What I didn't realize is how far the big three have pulled ahead of everyone else. Those schools literally don't need to charge tuition.
“If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain.”
you have opened a Pandora's box of issues for the PL.
Chronologically.
Recruiting,
Pl took too long to learn the ins and outs of scholarship recruiting.The first 3 years some individual stars were signed but overall we recruited the same prospects as we sought pre scholarship
Carryover IvyLite restrictions
We retained Ivy redshirt rules and adopted a League wide AI. Both put us at a severe disadvantage vs the CAA and currently the NEC also.
Roster and scholarship caps
Both promulgated to ease the financial issues for some PL teams. Even with those some PL teams are not even at our 60 schollie cap.
One can argue the weight to be given to any of these issue but it is abundantly clear that the totality of these self imposed restrictions make it extremely difficult to compete at an OOC level that we want.If we dont make some neceesary changes our only option will be to become a parochial insular league like the Ivies with an OOC of PFL and lower level teams. It is up to the Council of Presidents to decide and act.
the league never figured out scholly football and have actually gone backwards either get real coaches or drop schollies
Coaching has been a significant issue across the PL for struggling programs. Coaches have either become complacent and/or outstayed their welcome at Lehigh, Lafayette, Holy Cross, and arguably Bucknell. In the cases of Coen and Tavani, neither has been willing to take accountability for their failure to compete, let alone succeed, as head coach.
This quote from Andy Coen to the Morning Call following yesterday's debacle at Princeton is very telling:
“They’re just a better football team than we are, clearly,” LU coach Andy Coen said. “And there are reasons why they are. When you look out and their 3s [third-string players] are beating our 1s [starters], that pretty much says it all. Give me the scholarship money that the Ivies give that they say don’t, but they do, then it would be a whole different look.”
That statement from Coen makes it clear that he is deflecting blame to everyone but himself. Before yesterday, Lehigh was 5-1 against Princeton dating back to 2010. The last meeting, in 2016, Lehigh won 42-28. Coen suddenly wants people to believe that Princeton and the Ivies have surpassed Lehigh to that extent in 2 years? I don't think so. The primary issue is coaching. Lehigh should follow Holy Cross' lead from 2017 and make a mid-season change at the helm ASAP.
12-Time Patriot League Champions: 1993, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2017
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