The Patriot League is an intercollegiate athletic conference comprising primarily leading private institutions of higher education and two United States service academies based in the Northeastern United States. Except for the Ivy League, it is the most selective group of higher education institutions in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and has a very high student-athlete graduation rate for both the NCAA graduation success rate and the federal graduation rate.
The Patriot League has 10 core members: American University, the United States Military Academy (Army), Boston University, Bucknell University, Colgate University, College of the Holy Cross, Lafayette College, Lehigh University, Loyola University Maryland, and the United States Naval Academy (Navy). All 10 core members participate in the NCAA Division I for all Patriot League sports that they offer. Since the conference does not offer every available NCAA sport, most schools are affiliated with other collegiate conferences for sports such as ice hockey and wrestling, and five other schools whose home conferences do not sponsor sports that they offer are associate members of the Patriot League for those sports.
Only half of the conference's core members compete in the Patriot League for football, as part of the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS): Bucknell, Colgate, Holy Cross, Lafayette, and Lehigh. Of the five other conference members, American, Boston University, and Loyola Maryland do not sponsor football, while Army and Navy play in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision as football-only members of the American Athletic Conference (The American).
Six other institutions are Patriot League members only for specific sports, and are referred to as associate members. Fordham University, Georgetown University, Villanova University, the College of William & Mary, and the University of Richmond are associate members in football, while Georgetown and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are associate members in women's rowing.
About Patriot League members are schools with very strong academic reputations that adhere strongly to the ideal of the "scholar-athlete", with the emphasis on "scholar". An academic index ensures that athletes are truly representative of and integrated with the rest of the student body. Out-of-league play for Patriot League schools is often with members of the Ivy League, which follow similar philosophies regarding academics and athletics.
Patriot League members have some of the oldest collegiate athletic programs in the country. In particular, "The Rivalry" between Lehigh University and Lafayette College is both the nation's most-played and longest-uninterrupted college football series.
The winner of the Patriot League basketball tournament receives an automatic invitation to the NCAA Division I basketball tournament every March. In recent years, Bucknell (twice) and Lehigh have both won NCAA tournament games. The Patriot League champions in a number of other sports also receive an automatic invitation to their respective NCAA tournaments.
History
The origins of the Patriot League began after the eight Ivy League schools expanded their football schedules to ten games starting in 1980. Needing opponents with a similar competitive level on a regular basis for each team's three nonconference games, the league contacted two university presidents, the Reverend John E. Brooks, S.J., of Holy Cross, and Peter Likins of Lehigh, about forming a new conference that also prohibited athletic scholarships. The result was the Colonial League, a football-only circuit that began competition in 1986. Its six charter members were Holy Cross, Lehigh, Bucknell, Colgate, Lafayette, and Davidson. Davidson dropped out after the 1988 season for reasons related to geography, lack of competitiveness, and a reluctance to relinquish its basketball scholarships in case the conference expanded into other sports.
In 1990, the league changed its name to the Patriot League at the suggestion of Carl F. Ullrich, who would go on to become the conference's first full-time administrator. At the start of the 1990–91 academic year, the league became an all-sport conference, with 22 sports (11 for men and 11 for women), and now had seven full members, including Fordham and the United States Military Academy (Army) as new members. In 1991, the league gained an eighth full member, the United States Naval Academy (Navy).
In 1993, the league hired Constance (Connie) H. Hurlbut as executive director. She was the first woman and youngest person to be the leader of an NCAA Division I conference.
In 1995, Fordham resigned its full membership (leaving the league with seven full members) but continued as an associate member in football. In 1996, Fairfield and Ursinus joined as associate members in field hockey. (Fairfield left after the 2003 fall season and is now an associate member of the Northeast Conference. Ursinus left after the 2001 fall season and is now a full member of the Division III Centennial Conference.) In 1997, Towson joined as an associate member in football. (Towson left after the 2003 fall season to join the Atlantic 10 Conference, whose football conference would be absorbed by the Colonial Athletic Association, now the Coastal Athletic Association, in 2007.) In 1999, Hobart joined as an associate member in men's lacrosse and Villanova joined as an associate member in women's lacrosse. (Hobart left after the 2004 spring season, to join the ECAC Lacrosse League, while Villanova left after the 2006 spring season.) In 2001, American University joined as the eighth full member and Georgetown University joined as an associate member in football. Two schools announced in summer 2012 that they would join the league for the 2013–14 academic year, with Boston University making its announcement on June 15, and Loyola University Maryland doing so on August 29.
In May 2024, the University of Richmond, who at the time was already an associate member of the league for women's golf, announced that they would also move their football program to the Patriot League for the 2025 season, becoming the Patriot League's first new football-playing member in over 20 years.
On April 25, 2025, the College of William & Mary announced that it would be joining the Patriot League as a football-only associate member, starting in the 2026 season. The move similarly follows that of fellow in-state football rival University of Richmond, and brings the historic "Capital Cup" rivalry series between both schools into the Patriot league conference schedule. About six weeks later on June 5, Big East Conference member Villanova University announced it would also join Patriot League football in 2026, which creates another natural rivalry in Georgetown (a well known basketball rivalry).
Athletic scholarships While Patriot League colleges have always offered need-based financial aid, league members have only been allowed to give athletic scholarships in recent years. Basketball scholarships were first allowed beginning with freshmen entering the league in the fall of 1998.
In 2001, when the league admitted American, which gave scholarships in all its sports (AU does not play football), the league began allowing all schools to do so in sports other than football. Lafayette, the last holdout with no athletic scholarships, began granting full rides in basketball and other sports with freshmen entering the school in the fall of 2006. Most Patriot League schools do not give athletic scholarships in a number of sports, and Bucknell only granted them in basketball prior to the addition of football scholarships in 2013.
In the spring of 2009, Fordham University announced that it would start offering football scholarships in the fall of 2010. This action made Fordham ineligible for the league championship in that sport, but it also prompted a league-wide discussion on football scholarships. On February 13, 2012, the Patriot League announced its members could begin offering football scholarships starting with the 2013–14 academic year. Since then, each school has been allowed no more than the equivalent of 15 scholarships to incoming football players. Presidents from six of the seven football schools indicated they would award scholarships in the fall of 2012. Georgetown University did not commit to offering scholarships. Since the transition to scholarship football was completed for the 2016–17 academic year, each football member has been allowed up to 60 scholarship equivalents per season, a total only slightly lower than the NCAA limit of 63 scholarship equivalents for FCS programs. Currently, Patriot League schools are permitted to offer up to the NCAA maximum of 63 scholarships for its football programs.
Chronological timeline 1986 — The Patriot League was founded as a football-only league known as the Colonial League. Charter members included Bucknell University, Colgate University, Davidson College, the College of the Holy Cross, Lafayette College and Lehigh University, beginning the 1986 fall season (1986–87 academic year). 1989: Davidson left the Colonial League after the 1988 fall season (1988–89 academic year). Fordham University joined the Colonial League in the 1989 fall season (1989–90 academic year). 1990: The Colonial League renamed itself as the Patriot League, while rebranding itself as a multi-sport conference (with Bucknell, Colgate, Fordham, Holy Cross, Lafayette and Lehigh as charter members while upgrading for all sports), beginning the 1990–91 academic year. The United States Military Academy (Army) joined the Patriot League in the 1990–91 academic year. 1991 – The United States Naval Academy (Navy) joined the Patriot League in the 1991–92 academic year. 1995 – Fordham left the Patriot League to join the Atlantic 10 Conference (A10) after the 1994–95 academic year; while remaining in the conference as an associate member for football, beginning the 1995 fall season (1995–96 academic year). 1996 – Fairfield University and Ursinus College joined the Patriot League as associate members for field hockey in the 1996 fall season (1996–97 academic year). 1997 – Towson University (formerly Towson State University) joined the Patriot League as an associate member for football in the 1997 fall season (1997–98 academic year). 1998 – Villanova University joined the Patriot League as an associate member for women's lacrosse in the 1999 spring season (1998–99 academic year). 1999 – Hobart College joined the Patriot League as an associate member for men's lacrosse in the 2000 spring season (1999–2000 academic year). 2001: American University joined the Patriot League in the 2001–02 academic year. Georgetown University joined the Patriot League as an associate member for football in the 2001 fall season (2001–02 academic year). 2002 – Ursinus left the Patriot League as an associate member for women's lacrosse after the 2002 spring season (2001–02 academic year). 2004 – Two institutions left the Patriot League as associate members, both effective after the 2004 spring season (2003–04 academic year): Fairfield for field hockey and Hobart for men's lacrosse 2009 – The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) joined the Patriot League as an associate member for women's rowing in the 2010 spring season (2009–10 academic year). 2013: Boston University and Loyola University of Maryland joined the Patriot League in the 2013–14 academic year. Georgetown added women's rowing into its Patriot League associate membership in the 2014 spring season (2013–14 academic year). 2014 – The University of Richmond joined the Patriot League as an associate member for women's golf in the 2015 spring season (2014–15 academic year). 2024 – Richmond left the Patriot League as an associate member for women's golf after the 2024 spring season (2023–24 academic year).