WVU Claims Lambert Trophy

The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) has announced the final weekly ECAC Lambert Meadowlands Football Poll presented by FieldTurf Tarkett.

In the Bowl Subdivision poll, West Virginia retained its position at No. 1 with 80 points following its 48-28 pounding of Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. Boston College finished a distant second in the standings at 72 points. Penn State, Cincinnati, South Florida, Rutgers, Connecticut, Louisville, Navy and Pittsburgh rounded out the top ten.

For West Virginia, it is the third time in school history that it has claimed the Lambert Meadowlands Trophy. The Mountaineers first won the award in 1988 and claimed the trophy again in 1993.

The first place teams in the final poll will be presented with their Lambert Meadowlands Awards during the Eastern College Football Awards Banquet, held in the Pegasus Restaurant at the Meadowlands Sports Complex on February 19, 2008.

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 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.