Fisher Earns Top-Spot in Lambert-Meadowlands Football Poll
The nationally-ranked St. John Fisher College football team jumped four spots to earn the top overall ranking in the 2013 Lambert Meadowlands Football Poll for the first time this season. The Cardinals last held the top billing in 2006.
Fisher earned the No. 1 ranking after cruising past nationally-ranked Hobart College last weekend 27-6 to earn a spot in the NCAA Division III Football Championship quarterfinal round. The Statesmen had previously held the top-spot for seven consecutive weeks until being upended by the visiting Cardinals. Fisher also downed previously-unbeaten John Carroll University in opening round action.
The Cardinals played one of the hardest schedules in Division III this season en route to an 8-2 record in the regular season, which was enough to earn them one of only five at-large bids into this year's postseason. Now sitting at 10-2, Fisher is enjoying its 12th straight winning season and is the postseason for the 11th consecutive year. It is the fifth time in the last 10 years the Cardinals have reached double-digits in the win column.
Established in 1936 as the "Lambert Trophy" to recognize supremacy in eastern college football, the award has since grown to recognize the best teams in the East in Divisions I-A, I-AA, II and III. Before asking the ECAC to assume the administration, the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority managed the weekly poll and the award beginning in 1983 through the 2001 season.
To be eligible for the Lambert Meadowlands Awards, a school must be located in the East or play half of its schedule against eligible Lambert teams. The territory includes New York, New Jersey, New England and Pennsylvania, while teams in the bordering states of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia and the District of Columbia qualify if half of their schedule features eligible teams.
The Cardinals will return to action in the national quarterfinal round at 12:00 pm (CST) against No. 3 Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, Texas with the winner advancing to the final four.
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