Forum › Forum › Lehigh Sports › Lehigh Football › Brown White: LU are College Football Atheists?
This topic contains 4 replies, has 1 voice, and was last updated by sundayamqb 14 years, 2 months ago.
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November 19, 2010 at 4:58 am #2728
http://media.www.thebrownandwhite.com/m … 0776.shtml
If college football is a religion, we are atheists at Lehigh. It may be because we are a Division I-AA program, but big I-AA programs do exist. Villanova, Delaware and the Ivy League schools seem to be more successful because they have produced NFL players from time to time. Sadly, most students seem to be apathetic or oblivious to the football team as a whole. A case can be made that we’re just a new and different sect of college football.
One thing Lehigh absolutely has is a rivalry. Tomorrow morning, we’ll be crusaders, pouring into enemy territory to watch a war. We dedicate an entire week to the rivalry; we need to get just as pumped up as the actual team. Our battle can compete with the best of the rivalries: Army-Navy, USC-Notre Dame and Texas-Texas A&M. Lehigh-Laf has a long history and has been played more times than any other college football rivalry.
Although all of us, alumni and students alike, may not identify with the current mascot, our coach being god-like, wearing brown to every game or singing a fight song, we do believe in beating Lafayette.
First of all, calling Villanova a "big" FCS program couldn’t be more wrong. Lehigh’s attendance hasn’t been great this year, but one thing I do know is that it’s better than Villanova’s.
But what do you think of the thrust of his article? Accurate, or no? Relevant, or no?
November 19, 2010 at 1:47 pm #2731Here are the attendance numbers as published by the NCAA.
2009 Season
FCS
Montana (#1): 24,417
Yale (#3): 21,245
Delaware (#4): 20,750
UMass (#28): 10,887
Harvard (#29): 10,701
Penn (#30): 10,600
FCS Average: 8,654
CAA Average: 8,523
Lehigh: 8130
Villanova: 7110
Patriot League Average: 5,4592010 Season
Villanova (5 game home schedule completed): 8,574
Lehigh (5 game home schedule completed): 6,808November 19, 2010 at 4:07 pm #2732"LU65" wrote: 2010 Season
Villanova (5 game home schedule completed): 8,574
Lehigh (5 game home schedule completed): 6,808Maybe slightly better than Lehigh, but "big-time"? Hardly.
November 20, 2010 at 1:49 am #2746"lfnadmin" wrote: [quote="LU65"]2010 Season
Villanova (5 game home schedule completed): 8,574
Lehigh (5 game home schedule completed): 6,808Maybe slightly better than Lehigh, but "big-time"? Hardly.[/quote]
Big-time might refer to them being the defending FCS National Champs. I don’t know about you, but if Lehigh ever won another NCAA title, I would absolutely consider us big-time, no matter our attendance figures.
While Nova’s attendance is not exactly stellar, there’s more to a program’s impact than attendance. There’s a reason why the Big East came to them with hat in hand. Not sure they would be wise to take that leap up to the Big East though. Montana was smart to stay a big fish in the smaller pond of FCS.
November 20, 2010 at 2:33 am #2749Villanova’s attendance "Maybe slightly better than Lehigh"?
The difference is 26 percent — pretty big difference — this year, at least, and for good reason. Lots of excitement there.
If we do well in playoffs, just wait until next year …
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