Some thoughts following Bucknell's 24-21 win over Georgetown on Saturday.
1. Short and To The Point: Georgetown, its coaches, and its players can do better. A season's worth of platitudes about learning from mistakes and being ready to play went out the window in the fourth quarter of that game. Absent serious injury, you don't give up an 11 point lead with ten minutes in the fourth quarter to a one win team.
Especially if you're a two win team.
There are some serious and growing questions about this team heading into 2023. The soft bigotry of low expectations makes a winning season out of the realm of possibility, but is Georgetown as an institution no better than one win a year south of Poughkeepsie, NY?
The less said for now, the better, but this team has lost seven consecutive games settled by three points or less dating to the 2016 season. That won't be a problem this week, I'm afraid.
2. GSR, FGR, and WTH: Another NCAA statistic was published today, the 2022 Graduation Success Rate; which, in true NCAA double-speak, isn't about graduation and isn't even about 2022.
As defined in a PL release, "the graduation rates are the most recent recorded graduating class that started school in 2015," which means not the class of 2022, but the graduating class of 2019. Did it take three years to compile that data?
Also, according to the release, The Division I Board of Directors created the GSR in response to Division I college and university presidents who wanted data that more accurately reflected the mobility of college students than the federal graduation rate. The federal rate counts any student who leaves a school as an academic failure, whether they enroll at another school. The GSR formula removes from the rate student-athletes who leave school while academically eligible and includes student-athletes who transfer to a school after initially enrolling elsewhere." This allows Georgetown men's basketball to claim a 100% on the GSR while its federal rate hovers at 50 percent, and the actual graduation rates are even less.
For those still following this, here are the PL football rates:
When it comes to GSR, it's "first in war, first in peace, first in the Patriot League."
3. Around the PL: Last week's games brought little interest with the title race previously concluded.
Lehigh 36, Colgate 33: A surprise of sorts, given that Lehigh hasn't scored more than 28 points all season and Colgate gave up its most to any PL team this season, even Holy Cross. Lehigh travels to Lafayette for the season ender while Colgate seeks to avoid its worst finish since 1995 at Fordham.
Holy Cross 36, Bryant 29: Another surprise of sorts, given how close this game was; then again, the Northeast Conference is better than the PL thinks they are. Don't expect a repeat of this defensive performance against Georgetown on Saturday.
Fordham 45, Lafayette 10: Not a surprise. Tim DeMorat finished 32-of-45 passes for 482 yards and four touchdowns as the Rams continue to make their case for an at-large bid. Were it any other conference, they'd be in, but because it's the PL, it's probably 60-40 in their favor.
The league standings entering week 12. Barring something unusual, Georgetown is guaranteed a last place finish.
1. Holy Cross (10-0, 5-0 PL)
2. Fordham (8-2, 4-1)
3. Lafayette (3-7, 2-3)
4. Lehigh (3-7, 2-3)
5. Colgate (3-7, 2-3)
6. Bucknell (2-8, 2-4)
7. Georgetown (2-8, 1-4)
