I agree it’s what we should be striving for the football program, but will nitpick on your last sentence. I don’t think it’s the administration that is preventing it. I don’t know that the Patriot League has any interest in Duquesne.

I’m proud of my Duquesne degree, but we don’t quite fit the academic profile of the Patriot League. Roughly half of the members are liberal arts institutions, and the others are more highly regarded than Duquesne. Fordham would probably be the closest comparison, but looking at US News rankings they are ranked 91st while we are 165th.

Even looking at it from a purely athletic standpoint, I don’t think we fit the mold. I assume you are only pushing for partial membership in football, as Richmond and William & Mary are moving to, and Fordham has had since joining the A-10 in 1995. With the strides the football program has made in the last decade I do think we belong on the field, but that hasn’t been the case for long. Look no further than our 22-25-1 record against current members (and recognize that includes a 4-1 record since 2009). The new members are the 2008 national champion in Richmond, and a William & Mary program that has twice since then gone further in the playoffs than we ever have.

Furthermore our facilities hold us back from making just about any conference move. Rooney Field is the smallest home field of any D-1 football program. Even if we made the move that so many Dukes fans want and played at Highmark Stadium we’d still have the second smallest stadium in the Patriot League.

I do think the Patriot League is the best fit for Dukes football. It would bring easier travel to arguably more similarly aligned institutions and undoubtedly a higher competition level. I fear that the holdback isn’t on our end though. I would be in favor of any changes necessary to close the gap between us and appreciate the work the administration has recently done towards achieving that.

Last edited by luckymcd (4/28/2025 9:24 am)

I like the idea of A-10 football because I'd like as many of our sports as possible to be under the same umbrella. The football programs are so different though that I don't think it's feasible. Davidson and Dayton are non-scholarship, Duquesne, Fordham, and soon to be Richmond are scholarship but not full-scholarship, URI and most of the other schools that were in A-10 football when it existed are full FCS scholarship programs looking to compete for national championships, UMass, UConn, Delaware, and James Madison are now FBS and seem committed to making that work. I just don't see a way to make it work for everybody.