Best case scenario has happened!
Villanova to join Patriot League in 2026
- Thread starter spiderstudent17
- Start date
Fordham coach:
Lehigh coach:
Our coach:
Narrative is Patriot League becoming premier conference of FCS in the east.
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See how quickly the narrative has changed from Richmond de-emphasizing football, to Richmond being forward thinking and joining an FCS conference with now a bunch of great teams and like minded academic institutions. The PL with W&M, Richmond, Villanova is much better than the CAA and probably the 3rd best behind MVFC and Big Sky. W&M and now Villanova joining tells me 2 things. 1) That the move was due to the dysfunction of CAA and instability of the conference and not at all with UR de-emphasizing football. 2) JOC mentioned that biggest hurdle for Nova to join was getting rid of the grad school redshirt rule so I imagine that will likely change by next season.
I am going to pat myself on the back a little bit here. I called this from the beginning. Moreover, I won't be surprised to see CAA dissolve into American East. Hardt and our athletic department catch a lot of flack on here. I think they deserve way more credit. This move turned out to be excellent, especially if PL conference continues to be forward-thinking in its efforts to get better as all indications have shown. Great day for Spider football!
I am going to pat myself on the back a little bit here. I called this from the beginning. Moreover, I won't be surprised to see CAA dissolve into American East. Hardt and our athletic department catch a lot of flack on here. I think they deserve way more credit. This move turned out to be excellent, especially if PL conference continues to be forward-thinking in its efforts to get better as all indications have shown. Great day for Spider football!
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Well what do you know. Maybe our administration knows a thing or two.
It's certainly what we'd hoped would happen, glad to see it come to fruition.
Very curious about what degree of communication there was among the three institutions leading up to this. Huesman seemed taken by surprise a bit when W&M announced they were coming along, but who knows what may have taken place at the highest levels of the schools.
If there had been high level of discussion, would have thought all three schools would have moved at the same time, so to some degree we appear to have led the charge that inspired the other two to come along. Wonder what degree of confidence we had that they would do so.
Very curious about what degree of communication there was among the three institutions leading up to this. Huesman seemed taken by surprise a bit when W&M announced they were coming along, but who knows what may have taken place at the highest levels of the schools.
If there had been high level of discussion, would have thought all three schools would have moved at the same time, so to some degree we appear to have led the charge that inspired the other two to come along. Wonder what degree of confidence we had that they would do so.
Also curious about what changes we'll see with scheduling. Presuming FCS will approve the move to permanent 12-game schedules, we'll have 9 PL games and only three OOC games to line up. We've already got three lined up for 2026 and 2027 (had four, but W&M becomes a conference game).
2026: at NC State, Norfolk State, Furman
2027: at Louisville, at Norfolk State, at Furman
No OOC home games in 2027 looks rough.
2026: at NC State, Norfolk State, Furman
2027: at Louisville, at Norfolk State, at Furman
No OOC home games in 2027 looks rough.
Wow, our athletic department actually was out front of something.
Historically our AD (not necessarily the current one) has generally been out in front, especially re: William & Mary. In 1975 we decided to leave the Southern Conference and the next year WM decided to leave it as well. We moved to the Yankee Conference for FB while they went independent for a few years before joining us in the Yankee. Of course, we jumped at the chance to join the A10 for all sports. Now, we lead by joining the Patriot for FB and they follow suit for the following year.
The CAA still has some very good football schools, including New Hampshire, Maine, Stony Brook, Albany, Rhode Island, Towson, and Elon. Monmouth could be a very good football program. I could see the CAA being a 2 bid league. Probably not a 3-bid league.
Awesome, now fix the grad transfer and redshirt rule and it’ll officially be 100% much ado about nothing.
I see the Patriot League as a 2 or a 3 bid league, with William & Mary missing the playoffs and being left out.
I think redshirt rule might be fixed but not positive anymore. Someone posted here or on AGS that the new members would be grandfathered for those players on roster but was not changed as yet.
At any rate I was a little quick thinking the move would hurt playoff chances via At Large bids. Not near as worried about the move now.
PL now very capable of 2 or 3 bids but agree with Gallipoli CAA has bid worthy teams this coming year and post 2026 moves by Nova and W&M.
The Ivy League taking their auto bid will affect things as well.
You take the words out of my mouth.
As soon as W & M joined the handwriting was on the wall.
It would be interesting to know when this coupe really started. I wonder if the
much maligned AD, John Hardt didn’t have some leadership in building the PL
to a conference appropriate for our schools.
I keep forgetting that we spanked everyone in the CAA last year, including mighty Delaware. That includes not so might William ain't Harry.
Don’t forget who spanked us in the playoffs last year😩 Payback time opening game🕷️🕸️🏈
Hardt with some background on how things developed.
richmond.com
A much stronger Patriot League football branch rooted in UR's Robins Center
The University of Richmond was dissatisfied with CAA Football, and made a move.
I really think if he was skinny and had a full head of hair he'd get a lot less grief.
Our all-around athletic program has generally been outstanding under his leadership. Yes, MBKC was a disaster the past year. That has to change.
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