The Patriot League has canceled sports this fall, including football, due to the ongoing novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the league announced on Monday.
Although the Patriot League will not play football this fall, the league will make a decision on winter and spring sports competition “at a later date.” That leaves open the possibility that football could be played in spring.
The Patriot League currently consists of seven football-playing members: Bucknell, Colgate, Fordham, Georgetown, Holy Cross, Lafayette, and Lehigh.
Army and Navy are both members of the Patriot League, but not for their football programs. Army is a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Independent and Navy is a member of the American Athletic Conference in the FBS.
Per the Patriot League announcement, both Army and Navy “…may continue to engage in competitive opportunities as considered appropriate by their respective Superintendents.”
As a result of the Patriot League not playing football this fall, four non-conference games against members of the FBS have been canceled. Below are the four canceled contests:
- Bucknell at Army (Sept. 4)
- Fordham at Hawaii (Sept. 12)
- Colgate at Syracuse (Sept. 19)
- Holy Cross at Boston College (Oct. 31)
The last year there was no Lehigh/Lafayette game was 1896. If there is no official or unofficial game in 2020, it would be the first time in 124 years that The Rivalry was not contested.
— Lehigh Football Nation (@LFN) July 13, 2020
The Patriot League is the second Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) conference to cancel their fall sports. Last week, the Ivy League announced that they will not compete until 2021.
Patriot League Football Schedule
While the Patriot League generally is known to follow the Ivy League, my understanding is that the Patriot League schools have not yet elected to be on-line only like the Ivy schools. Of course, the only difference between the on-line Ivys and your local community college, according to the NY Times is $50,000 per year, the price tag.