The worst kept secret in FCS football is a secret no more.
In a matter of a little more than 13 months, the conference where time stood still has added three nationally prominent programs, including two former national champions, and positioned the Patriot League as the most interesting conference in FCS football. The addition Thursday of Villanova, the third jewel in the PL's triple crown of expansion candidates, is stunning in its impact, and remarkable that the stars aligned as they did.
For forty years, Villanova was the school that wanted nothing to do with the PL, and did its part to steer clear of the Last Amateurs while they were still amateur. The Andy Talley era positioned Villanova as the school which took I-AA and FCS football seriously, something to which Patriot schools were not altogether seen in such company. Yet, much like their fellow CAA stable mates in Richmond and William & Mary, the ground had changed underneath them, and the Patriot had changed to offer them a competitive home where one was fraying around them in the CAA.
Unless you're a Georgetown fan who grew up in or around the Philadelphia area, chances are you don't know much about the Wildcats, inasmuch as these schools never played each other in football over the last 75 years. How Villanova got to this position is a story worth telling.
A football program since 1894, Villanova was the smallest of the three Philadelphia area programs behind Penn and Temple. A major college program throughout, Villanova played larger opponents at Shibe Park or Municipal (JFK) Stadium, but more often than not at the 12,000 seat on-campus stadium which still stands along Lancaster Avenue. Though it had not been ranked nationally since 1949, the Wildcats were invited to the 1961 Sun Bowl versus Wichita State and the 1962 Liberty Bowl versus Oregon State, the latter played at Philadelphia's Municipal Stadium before its move to Memphis later in the decade.
Following a 9-2 season in 1970 with wins over Maryland, Navy, and Temple, the Wildcats managed just two winning seasons the remainder of the decade before a 6-5 season in 1980. The year 1980 is a seminal date for Villanova football, for it was following that season that, citing a $500,000 loss, that the program was discontinued.
"Interest had dwindled to the point where we sold only 750 season tickets in 1980, and we had 95 players on scholarship,'' said athletic director Ted Aceto, himself the quarterback of the 1961 and 1962 teams.
Rather than dutifully accepting its fate as Georgetown had done two decades earlier, alumni pushed back. A group known as the Committee to Restore Football began to get attention, even going so far as to book the legendary Bob Hope for a fundraiser later that year at the Philadelphia Academy Of Music, titled "Hope For Football". According to local reports, the event covered expenses but "we got about $5 million in free advertising from the papers."
What really got the school's attention was getting alumni to show their dissatisfaction over the decision.
"During those years the university realized it had dropped a notch in prestige and how people viewed it,” said sports information director Craig Miller to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “People would send checks and write "Void" on them, saying they wouldn’t continue to make donations until football returns.” Homecoming attendance dropped over 90 percent in two years. University officials saw the issue and understood that it needed a second look.
"We have 54 (alumni) clubs throughout the country--including three in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego,” said its alumni director. “And 52 of the 54 club presidents returned to campus the day we urged [Villanova] to reconsider.”
In 1983, Villanova restored football, to begin at the Division III level with a move to Division I-AA within four years--a lower scholarship threshold and a perceived better positioning for the school as a whole, now a member (in other sports) of the Big East conference.
"You simply have to look to the overall benefits (of playing the game) instead of the financial benefits (of not playing),” its school president told the Inquirer., “Football is a unique college activity that has the strong support of the alumni and the school’s other friends."
"If it’s that important to them, it’s that important to the university.”
With a new coach in Andy Talley, a non-scholarship team debuted with an intrasquad scrimamge at Homecoming on November 3, 1984.
"We weren't going to have a team until the following fall, we still hadn't recruited a single player and yet we had a capacity crowd of 13,400 people who had paid $10 each to see the game,'' said Aceto in a story picked up by the Los Angeles Times. "It was absolutely amazing. Except for three players, who had accepted scholarships before the football program was abandoned, everyone was a walk-on, and we were so short of offensive linemen that some guys had to keep running on and off the field to change jerseys.''
Beginning with a Division III schedule in 1985, Talley won 17 of its next 18 over the next three seasons, and the Wildcats were off and running. Amidst early opponents such as Iona, Pace, Fordham, and even Catholic University, Talley took care not to schedule, or even be compared to, Georgetown. To this date, and at least until 2026, Georgetown remains the only PL school Villanova football has not played in its modern era.
Villanova joined the Yankee Conference in 1988, hosting Wake Forest at home but finishing 4-4 in conference against the likes of Delaware, UConn, and UMass, and with a run of four consecutive weeks versus nationally ranked teams. The next season, Villanova won its first Yankee title, one of five such titles across the Yankee, A-10, and CAA nameplates. The Wildcats have 16 NCAA appearances, including the 2009 national championship.
In 2011, Villanova gave serious consideration to upgrading to FBS and joining Big East football, with a move of its games to what is now known as Subaru Park in Chester. One week before the trustees' meeting, Pitt and Syracuse announced a departure from the Big East and the vote was tabled.
In the intervening years, Villanova was a loyal and successful CAA program. The loss of James Madison in 2021 stirred some questions among the fan base, as did the addition of unfamiliar and disparate programs: Bryant, Campbell, Hampton, Monmouth, North Carolina A&T. In 2023, its major CAA rival, Delaware, announced a move out of the conference. With Richmond and William & Mary moving to the Patriot, the stage was set to join them.
So what does this mean for Villanova?
At the forefront, stability. The PL is a conference of like minded schools that the Villanova fan base is familiar with. Richmond and W&M renew regional ties, while Lehigh and Lafayette are nearby regionally. According to a report, the average distance for road games across the PL will be just 175 miles compared to trips along the CAA schedule which ranged from Buies Creek, North Carolina to Orono, Maine.
As to home games, Villanova should see a boost in attendance. Lehigh fans will buy tickets. So will Lafayette and Bucknell, Fordham and Holy Cross.
"The geographic footprint of the Patriot League is a perfect fit for Villanova," said athletic director Eric Roedl.
"We believe this move will foster strong regional rivalries while maintaining our commitment to excellence on and off the field,” said ninth year coach Mark Ferrante. “It’s a natural fit that positions us well for the future.”
Second, it allows the Wildcats to remain nationally competitive. Villanova is 72-42 (.632) over the past ten seasons and has made the NCAA playoffs four of the past six seasons. The PL, in its scholarship era, allows them to continue to compete at a high competitive level for FCS be seen (by opponents or fans) as not deemphasizing the sport.
Third, it mitigates risk. The CAA has endured its hills and valleys over the years and the next few years may be challenging for that conferences. In an era of turmoil ahead for college athletics as a while, the PL is one less thing for Villanova athletic leadership to worry about.
What does this mean for the Patriot League?
It's the big prize that gives the PL a 10 team conference without the need for further expansion. Short of the Ivy League breaking apart or the service academies dropping to FCS, there are really no other schools that fit the PL model in its footprint, and now the league can sit back and say they have the optimal collection of football teams in this region, including a school in Villanova which is a Top 60 academic university nationally. For the first time in its history, multiple bids to the NCAA playoffs from the PL is not a hope, it is an expectation.
It's also an addition of affirmation. Were Villanova to consider this even a decade ago, it would have brought back a lot of pushback, if not outright revolt, from players, the coaching staff, the alumni base, and the local press. In 2025, there's no grumbling that Villanova is downgrading or given up its national ambitions.
There's not a team in the league who will not be a better program, competitively speaking, by adding Villanova to its schedule. That said...
What does this mean for Georgetown?
At the outset, pain.
Villanova is leagues ahead of Georgetown across the board on football: reputation, recruiting, player development, coaching, strength and conditioning, and, of course, results. Villanova is 72-42 since 2015. Georgetown? 32-66. Villanova's operating expenses are nearly twice that of GU, while its budget of $8.4 million doubles that spent on the Hilltop. While Georgetown plays Wagner in its second game this season, Villanova is playing Penn State.
The Georgetown program can compete alongside Bucknell and Lafayette, and can hang around with a Lehigh or Fordham. As presently constructed in 2025, it can't compete with Villanova.
Therein lies opportunity.
The football program needs to have a real conversation about the ingredients it needs, inside and outside the University, to be successful going forward in a PL where eight or nine other schools are prepared and ready to compete at a national level. The ongoing series on this blog, the Georgetown Football Puzzle, is an example of such ideas, but there are others. Georgetown doesn't have to outspend everyone to compete, but first, it must compete. Football isn't fun if this is a one or two-win program within four years.
For a student and alumni body which can struggle to hold back a yawn when mentioning Georgetown's football opponents, this is the only name out there to which people will sit up and pay attention. In nearly a half century, Georgetown fans know the name and know the rivalry. This isn't a rivalry from another era a la Fordham and Holy Cross, this is twice a year, every year, in basketball and 20 other sports. Now, add football.
Properly positioned and marketed, this series can reignite real support for Georgetown football, something that's been missing for decades as the Big East overwhelmed the sports landscape at Georgetown. This is the kind of event where Georgetown fans could take the Amtrak from Union Station to 30th Street, change to the SEPTA or regional rail, and walk right to the gate.
Conversely, it's an open invite for Villanova fans who haven't visited Washington for a football game in decades to make this game a destination. Maybe that destination is Cooper Field. Maybe it's Audi Field. Maybe it's the new Commanders Stadium someday, no matter. This game must become a destination on the calendar of every Georgetown and Villanova fan, and their communities at large.
Marist can't do that. Neither can Bucknell or Lafayette. Villanova can.
From time to time, I've quoted a 2001 article by former coach Bob Benson on what football can do at Georgetown. This is a good time to revisit it.
"The move to the Patriot League is an expensive one," he wrote in 2001. "For Georgetown University to make this decision, the change must not only be a positive move for the football program, but for the entire university. There must be a vision!"
"It is really quite simple," he continued. "Utilize the game of football to create an environment and atmosphere among our students, faculty, and community on an autumn Saturday afternoon and bring to our campus a school spirit on a fall day that is desperately needed."
The Villanova Wildcats arrive to the Georgetown schedule in 15 months . Let's be up to the challenge.