Fordham will begin awarding athletics aid to football student-athletes beginning in fall 2010. The Rams suspended football scholarships in 1954.

"I am very pleased to announce this momentous news for the football Rams," President Joseph McShane said. "Momentous may be understating it, in fact. This is a sea change for Fordham athletics: These scholarships will allow more students to participate in Fordham football, and will make the team much more competitive both in Patriot League and non-league games."

Fordham plans to award 60 scholarships, which will allow the school to bolster its strength of schedule by arranging contests with Football Bowl Subdivision schools. The Rams will play Connecticut, Navy, Villanova and Army over the next several years.

The move will make the Rams ineligible for the Patriot League title and automatic playoff berth, but the school will remain an associate member. Patriot League schools do not offer athletics aid in football. Fordham will still be eligible for an at-large berth in the Football Championship Subdivision tournament.

Fordham will be eligible for the conference tournament and playoff berth in 2009 and will be included in the conference schedule through 2012, though their games will not count in Patriot League standings. The school will continue to follow the same academic and eligibility requirements as other members.

"There is strong desire both on the part of Fordham and the Patriot League to continue our long-standing relationship," said Bucknell President Brian Mitchell, the Chair of the Patriot League Council of Presidents. "The interim arrangement we have agreed to will allow Fordham to begin to award scholarships in football while affording the League time to address merit aid for football and broader issues related to membership expansion. This issue comes at a very difficult financial time on all of our campuses."

The league will continue to discuss the breadth of implications of adding athletics scholarships for members, with the goal of coming to a decision on the issue by the end of 2010. Fordham’s future eligibility for Patriot League benefits in football will be evaluated after any changes are made.

"I would like to publically thank the Patriot League as this has been a long process of ongoing discussion and I appreciate everyone's understanding," said Athletics Director Frank McLaughlin. "We look forward to continuing our relationship with the League's schools, along with our ongoing annual rivalry with Columbia University. We also look forward to the opportunity to compete in future games with other Ivy League schools now on the schedule such as Cornell, Penn, Yale and Harvard. Finally, the scholarships will allow us to renew rivalries with Army and Villanova and to enhance our schedule with the addition of schools such as Navy and Connecticut."