An unfortunately quiet month ended yesterday, with the announcement that Richmond would join the Patriot League for football beginning in 2025. Between leaving the CAA and an updated roster, let’s check on where things stand.
Recruiting update
Tons of high school offers went out this past week, but the big news happened back in April.
Jack Callaghan
The standout QB from local Collegiate High School verbally committed to UR in April, a huge recruiting win for the staff. Callaghan had offers from Western Michigan (when Billy Cosh was there), Stony Brook (once Cosh got hired), Temple, and Virginia Tech. You won’t see us win too many guys going against VT, and it’s even sweeter when he’s a QB. If Virginia Tech and Billy Cosh want this kid, you know he’s a good get. We’re 2+ years from seeing him in any meaningful game action but this a big win early into 2024.
Roster update
Right now we’re at 84 total:
A few things to note from the roster:
- This is a smaller roster right now, as we’ve operated in the high 80s the past two seasons, however that could still change with portal additions
- The five states with the most student athletes are Virginia (over 25% of the roster), Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Maryland, and New Jersey
- Recruiting strong freshman classes is still this staff’s strategy, as we have another year of 15+ incoming freshmen
We may still add a few to this number over the next month or so, but no matter what it looks like we’ll play with a number in the mid-80s this season.
Patriot League
The most unsurprising news in UR football history. There’s always been talk of UR moving to a lesser league, but I think we all hoped the day would never come.
One of the main points of the pro-Patriot League arguments states that Richmond is more closely aligned with the schools and fanbases in the conference. Was that an issue 10 years ago when we were part of a dominant CAA? JMU and Delaware aren’t anything like UR, yet it never was mentioned. What about basketball? St. Louis, Dayton, VCU, George Mason, etc. don’t really align with UR – should we go Patriot League for everything? They’ve also said our fanbase is closer to these schools, as UR tends to draw from the northeast. Isn’t our goal to expand our footprint, not solely focus on one area? Also, are alumni in Pennsylvania suddenly coming to a UR @ Bucknell game in November? If so, then great, but that feels like a reach.
This is the part that scares me the most, as it seems the Board is more than happy to take a step down in conference to rub shoulders with those they feel fit the school more, even if it means lower caliber football. The Patriot League typically is a one-bid league, although they’ve had a few at-large bids recently. It’s a very different mindset to suddenly be a big fish in a small pond and I’m unsure Richmond is ready to commit to that. Even when those around you aren’t spending or recruiting to a certain level, are we willing to maintain our standard? As it stands right now, we should be shooting for 7-1 on an annual basis – five years from now, will we be content with a winning conference record and merely making the FCS playoffs, not searching to find ourselves back in the quarters/semis and beyond? I sadly could see that happening. It’s a very different mindset between winning your conference and being a force in the FCS playoffs, one that (right now) is difficult to maintain in the Patriot.
And yes, the Patriot League has been better in recent seasons, but let’s not forget they only recently allowed the maximum number of scholarships for FCS football (63). That doesn’t count Georgetown, who doesn’t fund football scholarships still, so UR just joined a league that has a team full of non-scholarship athletes (similar to Davidson in the Pioneer League). Based on that, is the Patriot League ready to become a strong east coast FCS conference if the CAA continues to collapse? It sure doesn’t sound like it.
For now, the unknown makes all of this difficult. However, it could still lead to some optimistic outcomes. One is that UR was proactive, not reactive. This is not a school known for sticking their neck out there when it comes to sports, so being an early domino to fall is somewhat encouraging. Is the CAA going anywhere but down? Likely not, and rather than sit around we went ahead and made a change. Do I think the alumni base will be more excited about playing Georgetown and Lehigh? Not really, but were they going to be excited about playing NC A&T, Bryant, and Monmouth? Also no.
We also have to consider that it’s unlikely we’re the only team the Patriot League adds. If we stay at 8-teams entering 2025 that’d be disastrous, however I’m guessing this league grows to 10. Where does Villanova fit in all of this? They’re already right in the heart of the current Patriot League and are similar to UR in that they’ve got a completely different basketball conference. For me, adding them is a must – I don’t think this goes well without the Wildcats following us. It immediately says that the Patriot wants to be a multi-bid league, which is a big step. Everyone keeps mentioning William & Mary however I’m more skeptical of them. They’re a full-time CAA member so a Patriot League football-only move doesn’t make sense to me. They’d be a great 10th team to add but I’m not holding my breath.
No matter who else the Patriot does or doesn’t add, I still don’t see how this is better than the established Southern Conference. With Elon and Campbell nearby and the SoCon consistently getting multiple teams into the FCS bracket, it feels like that’s the better immediate option for expansion. The SoCon also has ESPN+, which was a selling point of the Patriot League. We can all agree anything is better than Flo Sports, but the SoCon having the same TV deal as the Patriot League removes another benefit of the Patriot League over other options.
What this comes down to is UR’s true motivation for this move. If we really were unhappy in the CAA and are set on finding a stable conference that we can shift towards the top of the FCS, then it’s encouraging to see us making strides towards that. If we’re more than happy just having a “good” football program in a conference that will never produce more than two bids in a season, then things look bleak. It’s hard for me to see how this was better for the program than the SoCon, as the “aligned schools and fanbases” just doesn’t do it for me. But who knows, maybe there’s more shake-up and we end up somewhere else come 2026.
Comments are open – very curious to hear everyone’s thoughts
RollSpides 
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