FCS CONFERENCE · 2026 SEASON

Patriot

#22 overall#11 in FCSRR50 +8.8Upper strength +12.010 teamsTop 25 teams 0

The weekly grind · 2026

The Oldest Rivalry

The Patriot League is a non-scholarship FCS conference anchored by military academies and selective academic institutions: Army, Bucknell, Colgate, Fordham, Georgetown, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh, and Navy. The Lafayette-Lehigh rivalry is the most played in college football history — 160+ meetings. Colgate and Holy Cross have both earned FCS playoff bids in recent seasons. The conference plays real football without scholarships at most programs, and it has the longest-running annual game in American sports as its centerpiece.

FCS10 teamsRace: FCS PlayoffLeader: Lehigh

Patriot · 2026 season

Three things to watch

The Playoff ContenderHoly Cross Keeps Making the Bracket

Holy Cross has reached the FCS bracket four times in five seasons under Fordham's Bob Chesney-era descendants. They recruit a specific kind of student-athlete — Catholic schools pipeline, Northeast corridor — and develop them into FCS playoff performers. Their 2026 roster returns the core of a group that went 9-3 and earned an at-large bid. The Patriot's automatic qualifier plus their at-large resume is the conference's best path to multiple bracket entries.

The ChallengerColgate's Run and What It Means

Colgate reached the FCS quarterfinals, beating a seeded program in the bracket before losing. Their program identity — Hamilton, New York, small liberal arts school, near-zero name recognition nationally — is exactly what the FCS bracket exists to give a platform to. When Colgate makes a deep run, it is the format working as designed.

Conference standings · Patriot · 2026

Standings

#	Team	Conf	Overall	Pwr
1	Lehigh	5-1	7-2	+12.9
2	Richmond	4-2	6-3	+8.5
3	Villanova	4-2	5-4	+12.8
4	Colgate	4-2	5-4	+12.0
5	Holy Cross	4-2	4-5	+10.5
6	Georgetown	3-2	3-4	+6.7
7	Lafayette	2-3	3-5	+7.3
8	Fordham	2-4	2-7	+4.1
9	William & Mary	1-5	3-6	+5.1
10	Bucknell	0-6	1-8	+4.9

Conference record determines standing. Power = neutral-field pts vs. all-level average. Last 5 = most recent game results.

Projected standings · Patriot · 2026

Win projection

Odds of winning at least N conference games from current power ratings — full slate played out, not locked to results. Avg = expected wins; W-L = most-likely record.

#	Team	W-L	Pwr	Avg	≥9	≥8	≥7	≥6	≥5	≥4	≥3	≥2	≥1
Favorites
1	Villanova	6-3	+4.3	5.5	1	8	26	52	77	92	98	✓	✓
2	Lehigh	6-3	+4.4	5.4	1	7	23	49	75	91	98	✓	✓
Challengers
3	Colgate	5-4	+3.5	5.2	1	5	20	44	70	89	97	✓	✓
4	Holy Cross	5-4	+2.0	5.0		4	16	38	64	85	96	99	✓
5	Richmond	5-4	+0.1	4.6		2	9	26	52	77	92	98	✓
The field
6	Lafayette	4-5	−1.2	4.2		1	6	19	41	67	87	97	✓
7	Georgetown	4-5	−1.8	4.0		1	5	16	38	64	85	96	✓
8	William & Mary	4-5	−3.4	3.8			3	12	31	58	82	95	99
Rebuilding
9	Bucknell	4-5	−3.6	3.6			2	10	27	53	78	94	99
10	Fordham	3-6	−4.4	3.5			2	9	25	50	76	93	99

Conference power · FCS

Where we stand

#	Conference	Avg power	Record	Top team
1	MVFC	+12.4	—	South Dakota State
2	Big Sky	+10.9	—	Montana State
3	UAC	+10.8	—	Tarleton State
4	Southern	+10.4	2-0	Tennessee Tech
5	SWAC	+10.0	—	Alabama A&M
6	Southland	+9.8	—	Stephen F. Austin
7	OVC	+9.7	—	Gardner-Webb
8	Ivy	+9.6	3-8	Harvard
9	MEAC	+9.4	3-1	South Carolina State
10	Coastal Athletic	+9.2	0-1	UAlbany
11	PatriotYou are here	+8.8	—	Lehigh
12	NEC	+8.2	1-0	Central Connecticut
13	Pioneer	+8.2	1-0	St. Thomas (MN)

Round-robin power = strength of schedule-adjusted conference average, points vs. all-level average team. Record = Patriot's record vs. that conference across all games this season.

Conference Snapshot

RR50+8.8

Upper Strength+12.0

Median Power+8.4

Resume Pulse41.9

Avg ATS45.2%

Wins vs Market-0.38

Top-to-Middle Gap5.0

Combined Record39-48

League Drivers

Power leader Lehigh #155 overall | +12.9 pts vs avg Resume leader Colgate #168 overall | 64 / 100 resume ATS leader Colgate 77.8% cover rate Beat expectation Holy Cross +1.03 wins vs market

Patriot Team Board

The league stack, sorted by predictive strength. Power is shown as neutral-field points versus the all-level average team, while resume is shown on a 0-100 season score.

Rank	Team	Record	Power	Resume	ATS	Wins vs Market	Recent Form
#155	Lehigh	7-2	+12.9	61	5-4	-0.85	2-2 over the last 4 (W5 L7 L8 W9)
#157	Villanova	5-4	+12.8	62	3-6	-1.13	3-1 over the last 4 (L5 W7 W8 W9)
#168	Colgate	5-4	+12.0	64	7-2	-0.47	1-3 over the last 4 (L5 L7 L8 W9)
#185	Holy Cross	4-5	+10.5	35	5-4	+1.03	3-1 over the last 4 (W5 L7 W8 W9)
#209	Richmond	6-3	+8.5	51	4-5	+0.16	2-2 over the last 4 (W5 L6 W8 L9)
#230	Lafayette	3-5	+7.3	26	2-6	-0.88	2-2 over the last 4 (L5 W7 W8 L9)
#239	Georgetown	3-4	+6.7	53	5-2	+1.03	3-1 over the last 4 (L5 W6 W7 W8)
#251	William & Mary	3-6	+5.1	22	2-7	-1.22	1-3 over the last 4 (L5 W6 L8 L9)
#253	Bucknell	1-8	+4.9	25	3-6	-1.62	0-4 over the last 4 (L6 L7 L8 L9)
#257	Fordham	2-7	+4.1	20	3-6	+0.13	1-3 over the last 4 (L5 W6 L7 L8)