Villanova Football’s Playoff Path: Climb Gets Easier With Colgate Loss

Villanova Football’s uphill climb toward an FCS playoff spot got a little easier on Saturday, Oct. 17. The Wildcats (3-4, 2-2 Patriot League) picked up a blowout road win over Fordham, a much-needed confidence boost after a series of losses in games that came down to the wire.

They also benefitted from Georgetown’s upset road win over Colgate, which ended the Bears’ (4-3, 3-1 Patriot League) hopes of an undefeated record in conference play. Colgate beat Villanova on Saturday, Sept. 26 and holds the head-to-head tiebreaker, so the Wildcats will need them to lose at least two more conference games — while running the table themselves — in order to supplant them in the conference league standings.

Who to Root For

Also ahead of the Wildcats are Lehigh (6-1, 4-0 Patriot League), who lost starting quarterback Hayden Johnson to injury earlier this season and suffered their first loss this past weekend; unfortunately for Villanova, that loss came in an out-of-conference matchup and thus won’t hurt the Mountain Hawks in the standings, but the Wildcats will host Lehigh next week with a chance to regain some ground.

Richmond (5-2, 3-1 Patriot League) is the other team ahead of Villanova in the conference standings. They’ll play one another on the Main Line on Nov. 7, a game that would push the Wildcats ahead in the standings with a head-to-head win and no further losses. Other than that, the Wildcats and their fans will want to root for the Spiders in home games against Colgate (Oct. 24) and Lehigh (Nov. 14) that would help them spring to the top of the standings.

Villanova could lose one additional game and still hold out a slight hope of clinching a Patriot League title, but given the amount of breaks they already need to go their way, it would put them in a major hole. With four losses already, their hopes of an at-large bid to the FCS Tournament are negligible, so they’ll need a conference title and resulting automatic bid in order to make the playoffs for the fourth year in a row.