Patriot League Presidents Decide to Allow Scholarships in Football

Lafayette head football coach Frank Tavani and his Leopards celebrate a victory while the Lafayette Pep Band plays the College's alma mater.

The Patriot League Council of Presidents today endorsed a policy that will allow athletic merit aid for the sport of football beginning with the class enrolling in the fall of 2013.

Lafayette President Daniel H. Weiss said, “The Council of Presidents’ decision to adjust the current need-based model of financial aid in football, which has been in effect since the founding of the league in 1986, comes after extensive study and discussion of alternative models and a thorough evaluation of the benefits and potential costs associated with athletic merit aid in the sport. The decision reflects the presidents’ shared commitment to the stability and long-term positioning of the league and to its strength, competitiveness, and quality.”

Lafayette, a member of the Patriot League since it was formed, will “comply with the new league policy in a manner that requires no additional allocation of resources from the College’s Education and General Budget and that meets Title IX responsibilities,” Weiss said. “In accordance with the policy change, the College will offer merit aid in football beginning with the class entering in the fall of 2013. Details will be developed in the coming months.”

Starting with the class entering in the fall of 2013, each school will be permitted to award no more than the equivalent of 15 athletic financial aid awards each year to incoming football student-athletes, including transfers. The total amount of all countable financial aid awarded to all football student-athletes may not exceed 60 equivalencies in any year.

“Lafayette derives immeasurable value from our affiliation with the Patriot League, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to it,” said Weiss, the chair of the league’s Council of Presidents. “The league’s success is grounded in its founding principles, foremost among them the demonstrated commitment of the member institutions to the importance of academic and athletic achievement. We were proud to join league members American, Bucknell, Colgate, and Holy Cross in the NCAA’s most recent list of Division I institutions that recorded the highest graduation success rates.”

“It also remains our goal to maintain a football program that is competitive,” Weiss said. Lafayette has won six Patriot League championships, most recently in 2004, 2005, and 2006, and has been ranked in the top 25 nationally in six of the last eight seasons.