CAPE COD, Mass. - The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) has announced the seventh weekly ECAC Lambert Meadowlands Football Poll presented by FieldTurf.  In the Football Bowl Subdivision poll, Penn State takes the top spot for the first time this year after a 41-24 win over Big Ten rival Indiana.  Previously at No. 1, Temple drops to No.5 in a tie with Connecticut after a 31-23 home loss to Ohio last Tuesday.  In the Football Championship Subdivision poll, nationally top-ranked Delaware drops to sixth while William & Mary returns to the top of the poll with a 41-3 rout of Richmond.  Mercyhurst remains atop the Division II poll with a bye week, while Kutztown moved into a tie for second with Bloomsburg.   Wesley College (10-0) continues their reign atop the Division III poll, as it is the only team to stay at No. 1 in its respective poll through all seven weeks. Wesley was once again unanimously ranked No. 1 in the Division III poll after a 53-14 win over Muhlenberg, and is currently ranked third in the nation.

Boston College returns to the FBS poll at No. 10 with a 17-13 ACC win over Virginia, and Harvard is back in the FCS poll at No. 9 after a 28-21 victory over Ivy League rival Yale.  St. John Fisher College, who dropped out of the Division III poll after the fourth week, returns at No. 10 with its 56-13 win over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the ECAC Northwest Bowl presented by OAI Graphics.

The ECAC will release the weekly poll in each of the four divisions (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), Division II and Division III) and the final poll in January will determine the trophy winners.  The first place teams in the final poll will be presented with their Lambert Meadowlands Awards during the Eastern College Football Awards Banquet at the New Meadowlands Stadium in February.

Established in 1936 as the Lambert Trophy to recognize supremacy in Eastern college football, the award has since grown to recognize the best team in the East in the Bowl Subdivision. In 1957, the Lambert Cup was created to recognize non-Division I-A teams, and in 1966 a Division III award was added. In 1983, the Lambert family decided the Meadowlands Sports Complex would be the best organization with a sincere and involved interest in college athletics to sponsor and manage the award, and since that time, the awards have been known as the Lambert Meadowlands Awards.

To be eligible for the Lambert Meadowlands Award, a school must be located in the East or play at least 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 at least half of their schedule features eligible teams.  Teams in Eastern-based football conferences, regardless of location, qualify if at least half their schedule is against Lambert eligible teams.

About the ECAC®

The ECAC is the nation’s largest athletic and the only multi-divisional conference in the country with approximately 300 Division I, II, and III colleges and universities. The ECAC stretches from Maine to North Carolina and westerly to Illinois. Established in 1938, the ECAC, a non-profit service organization, sponsors nearly 100 championships in 37 men’s and women’s sports and assigns more than 4,400 officials in 12 sports. The ECAC also administers nine affiliate sports organizations and six playing leagues, and through the public relations arm of the conference, more than 2,000 student-athletes are recognized annually. Finally, the ECAC serves as the primary conference for select members in the sports of men’s ice hockey, women’s ice hockey, and men’s lacrosse.