College GameDay fails to capture the true national headline

In my junior year, our football team went 9-4. I flew to Idaho for our quarterfinal playoff game. Amid a sea of black and gold Vandals, I proudly donned my Lehigh press credential. 

Fast-forward to the current day, we’re a national championship contender.

It’s a miraculous turnaround, one that should have garnered more national attention. How many programs advance to the playoffs without flipping boatloads of cash into the transfer portal? Not the Mountain Hawks.

As our team sits on the precipices of a historic 12-0 season, the chance for a national spotlight looms under the fabled lights of College GameDay. With only three games between ranked opponents, there was optimism the crew would choose the premier FCS matchup.

However, it was announced on Sunday that the GameDay crew is heading back to the West Coast for the Oregon-USC game.

Disappointing to say the least. For the third time this season, the nation gets to watch the Oregon Ducks. 

They made the wrong choice. GameDay should be flying over to Easton, Pennsylvania, to cover this year’s rendition of The Rivalry.

GameDay’s FAQ section says locations “are chosen by ESPN based on competitive matchups, rivalries and other factors.”

Interestingly vague, just another way to hide blatant SEC and Big Ten bias. Let’s break it down by factor.

Competitive Matchups:

Lehigh is the No. 4 team in the country in the FCS Coaches Poll. Lafayette is No. 24, having recently entered the Top 25 in Week 12. 

Lehigh is second in the FCS in scoring defense, holding opponents to 12.3 points per game. Lafayette boasts the 20th-ranked scoring offense, averaging 33.7 points per game. The Mountain Hawks aren’t far behind, averaging 33.1 points per game.

Both teams boast star power. Lafayette has the fourth-leading rusher in the FCS, junior Kente Edwards, who’s received six Patriot League offensive player of the week awards this season. Lehigh’s defense boasts three All-Patriot First Team Defense recipients: T.J. Burke, Matt Spatny and Nick Peltekian.

Saturday’s contest will be a showdown between the Patriot League’s best offense and defense — and all metrics point to a good old-fashioned shootout.

Oregon and USC both have talented quarterbacks in Dante Moore and Jayden Maiava, with NFL talent littered across the field. Makai Lemon makes highlight-reel plays every week, while Noah Whittington bruises like a faster Derrick Henry. Point to Oregon-USC.

Student Section:

Rewind last year’s rivalry game.

As Dante Perri took the final knee, Lehigh students had already begun to storm the field. They immediately started climbing on the goalposts.

Minutes later, I walked down from the press box to the postgame conference room, only to be nearly knocked over by an army of students carrying the remains of the goalposts.

They walked nearly four miles up South Mountain through the South Side, before tossing the rest into the Lehigh River. Chaos Hunter S. Thompson would be proud of.

In the weeks leading up to the game, it’s an annual tradition to spray paint banners poking fun at Lafayette. It goes both ways.

Take a walk in the surrounding community during Rivalry Week — nearly every house has a banner violently blowing in the autumn wind.

You better believe there would be signs if GameDay came to town. Point to Le-Laf.

Rivalries:

It’s pretty self-explanatory for a game known as “The Rivalry.”

Le-Laf is college football’s most played rivalry game, with Saturday’s rendition representing the 161st meeting between the two programs.

Separated by a highway, the winner essentially has bragging rights over the Lehigh Valley. In conversations I’ve had with Lehigh football alumni, a season can’t be considered a success without a win against Lafayette, regardless of previous results. It holds as much weight as Michigan-Ohio State, if not more.

They could hang the broken frame that was formerly known as Goodman Stadium’s goalpost in the Louvre and pray that a Lafayette student doesn’t come and steal it for revenge — the game means that much.

Oregon-USC isn’t a rivalry. There’s no proximity between the opponents who have only met 63 times before Saturday. No unique rivalry name or annual meeting. It’s just another Big Ten regular-season matchup. Point to Le-Laf.

Historical Implications:

Lehigh’s 11-0 start places the Mountain Hawks on the doorstep to history. The last time the team was 11-0 was in 2001 — when the world was a far different place.

The iPhone didn’t exist, and New England Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe had just suffered an injury, giving way to an unknown backup quarterback named Tom Brady. 

Lehigh’s program is 24 years removed from its four consecutive Patriot League titles from 1998 to 2001. After tumultuous seasons during the late 2010s and 2020s, the program is back to contending for a national championship.

Oregon and USC have always been competitive programs. The Ducks made the national championship in 2010, and USC was a perennial powerhouse during Pete Carroll’s tenure. This game doesn’t change the history of these programs.

And if you want to talk Big Ten competition, don’t forget that Lehigh stomped Penn State 106-0 back in 1889.

Talk about quality wins. Point to Le-Laf.

For these Big Ten schools, there are always second chances. If Oregon loses, the College Football Playoff Committee will consider Oregon’s loss a quality one. Ohio State had two losses last year and won the national championship after getting an at-large bid.

At the FCS level, there’s no reconciliation for failure. One loss can dash playoff hopes. Nobody goes bowling at this level. It’s playoffs or bust.

All factors considered, no matchup has more on the table than Le-Laf. Those are stakes you don’t want to miss out on. 

So GameDay, speaking on behalf of our publication, sometimes it’s not all about the big market teams.

I’ll leave with my favorite quote from Thompson, in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”

“Buy the ticket, take the ride.”

See you next year, GameDay.