EASTON, Pa. – The 2023 Patriot League champion Lafayette Leopards will play at the No. 7/6 Delaware at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 25 in the first round of the NCAA FCS Playoffs. The game will be brodcast live on ESPN+.
 
Lafayette will be making its first postseason appearance since 2013. The Leopards clinched the conference crown yesterday with a decisive 49-21 win over archrival Lehigh, as Lafayette outscored the Mounntain Hawks 35-0 in the second half. 
 
In just the second year of the John Troxell '94 coaching era, Lafayette has rung up a 9-2 overall record, the Leopards' best mark since a nine-win season in 1981. Lafayette finished 5-1 in Patriot League play for the first time since 2006, in the process winning its eighth Patriot League title. The conference clip equaled Holy Cross' league win total, but Lafayette's 38-35 win at Holy Cross on Oct. 21 clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker and secured the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Playoffs.
 
The Leopards' 2023 postseason appearance will mark the fifth postseason appearance for Lafayette football which is in search of its first NCAA Playoff victory. Lafayette played at Delaware on its home turf in Newark, Del. in 2004 (28-14), at Appalachian State in 2005 34-23), at Massachusetts in 2006 (35-14) and at New Hampshire in 2013 (45-7).