Patriot League to Offer Football Scholarships for First Time Starting 2013
The Patriot League, which has the most-played rivalry in college football, will begin offering scholarships in the sport beginning with 2013’s incoming class, the conference’s Council of Presidents announced today.
The league, founded in 1986 on the principles of “admitting athletes who are academically representative of their class,” previously allowed need-based financial aid to athletes in all sports and merit-based scholarships for all sports except football.
The decision will raise the level of play and strengthen the conference’s future, Patriot League Executive Director Carolyn Schlie Femovich said in a news release.
“The introduction of this financial-aid model for football will strengthen the Patriot League’s ability to compete for outstanding student-athletes while continuing to uphold the high academic standards of the league and its member institutions,” she said.
The league has eight full members and two associate members for football, Fordham University and Georgetown University. The football conference, which competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Football Championship Subdivision, the sport’s second tier, includes seven teams -- Bucknell University, Colgate University, Fordham, Georgetown, Lafayette College, Lehigh University and the College of the Holy Cross.
Lehigh, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Lafayette, of Easton, Pennsylvania, have played football 147 times, more than any two college teams, dating back to 1884. Roughly 16,000 fans came to the 2011 game, when host Lehigh beat Lafayette 37-13.
No financial impact of the change was cited in the statement from the Center Valley, Pennsylvania-based league or on a media conference call.
Scholarship Limit
Starting with the 2013 academic year, each school will be allowed no more than the equivalent of 15 scholarships to incoming football players, according to the release. The total number of scholarships can’t exceed 60 in any season.
The league began in 1986 as the football-only Colonial League. In 1990 it adopted its current name and expanded to 22 sports. In 1996 it voted to allow basketball scholarships and expanded aid to all sports except football in 2001.
To contact the reporter on this story: Eben Novy-Williams in New York at enovywilliam@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net
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