[Sly Fox]

Is there any particular reason other than bad football play that UMass hasn't been mentioned in conference realignment talks?

https://www.gazettenet.com/UMass-athlet ... k-43314576

Neither Coach Cal or Dr. J is walking through that door. Outside of hockey, their entire athletic department is down right now. Then you factor in geography and they along with UConn are tough sells to any conference. Both of those schools want to keep olympics parked where they are and their football programs bring practically no value. Wait, they do help everyone else with bowl eligibility. But there does now appear to be a wilingness from the UMass brass to possibly go all sports to a league aay from the A-10.

[Ill flame]

Indy is good. Try for schedules similar to what we have next year. Increase attendance by 10 or 15k per game and wait for B12 ... long shot ACC. Maybe even something like ND has with ACC.

How are you going to increase attendance by 10k with a steady home schedule of UMASS NMSU etc?

Our 2025-2030 schedules all have a regional P5 at home. Combine that with a healthy dose of other regional teams like coastal, app St, marshall, ODU, army and a fbs JMU that should travel well and we have decent home schedules that will bring in fans.

[ballcoach15]

Liberty should not play JMU in

[Cider Jim]

Liberty should not play JMU in

Are you scared? That would be a great local rivalry. And might help us to get our first sell out at Williams Stadium.

[tyndal23]

How are you going to increase attendance by 10k with a steady home schedule of UMASS NMSU etc?

Tyndal23, Plan

Your plan has LU playing tons of road games and/or having losing records. Your plan has LU matching up with maybe 1 possibly 2 good home games a year. You still have home games consisting mainly of Delta St Our Mother of the Worthless Miracle and Blue Mountain St. Not remotely close to bolstering home attendance by 10-15k.

My plan has us playing only 1 extra road game ( unless you really want to go overboard and pay for an extra home game for a fan base of 18k) My plan has us scheduling Bottom1/3 P5 - 5 years in advance which 5 years ago would be now undefeated Wake Forest today ( you never know that far out ) but I am totally fine with scheduling 1 current “ blue blood” a year. My plan has the Top 10 HC and staff budget, top 3 recruiting and “support staff” and top 1 marketing budget in the country, and minimum $ worried about local Lynchburg fan support ( which has a hard cap and we have reached it ). Focus on National Brand and Recruitng ( recruit TX and CA Christian Schools with max effort and we blow past BYU talent wise ( not home fan base wise ). TV is where the $ is - don’t fall in to trap of broke school/conference regional mentality. Keep your tv $ and don’t share - stay above the G5 fray and Thank God every time we aren’t invited to a G5 Conference no matter how good their Softball team is..

[Ill flame]

I think playing 3 P5s a year with one at home and stacking the rest of the schedule with the best G5s that will play us outside of our 3-4 independent/fcs games a year will set us up best for the next round of realignment. We already pay hugh freeze a lower tier P5 salary and have lower tier P5 facilities. Why not spend the next decade showing off our potential without jumping the gun too early and potentially setting ourselves back?

[TH Spangler]

Must average 25k to be considered by B12. Everything else is ready. Let's see how things go next year. Won't be 25k average but with Tech and BYU scheduled shoot for 20k average. Sell out those two games.

Left behind CUSA all sports is not very appealing to me.

[ballcoach15]

For Liberty to average 25k, the visiting teams need to bring 6-7k every game. LU's first sell out should be VT game.
Army game has potential with good weather. We need to market this game on Army bases in Northern VA, Fort Lee, Fort Eustis, and Fort Bragg.

[flamehunter]

For Liberty to average 25k, the visiting teams need to bring 6-7k every game. LU's first sell out should be VT game.
Army game has potential with good weather. We need to market this game on Army bases in Northern VA, Fort Lee, Fort Eustis, and Fort Bragg.

You mean the Army game where all the students are home for Thanksgiving? I don't think so.

[ballcoach15]

I forgot students are gone. Every opportunity we have for big crowd, usually students are gone. I believe this was a problem with in Vines Center several times.

[olldflame]

For Liberty to average 25k, the visiting teams need to bring 6-7k every game. LU's first sell out should be VT game.
Army game has potential with good weather. We need to market this game on Army bases in Northern VA, Fort Lee, Fort Eustis, and Fort Bragg.

I doubt if there is a successful FBS program in the country that draws 25% of their crowds from the opposition fan base, and I have no desire to be the first.

[BlueBlood]

For Liberty to average 25k, the visiting teams need to bring 6-7k every game. LU's first sell out should be VT game.
Army game has potential with good weather. We need to market this game on Army bases in Northern VA, Fort Lee, Fort Eustis, and Fort Bragg.

You mean the Army game where all the students are home for Thanksgiving? I don't think so.

Unfortunately, the students are also away for the Louisiana game (Thanksgiving break starts the day before). Knowing that, it might have been an opportunity for LU to see if ESPN had any interest in a Thurs night game that week. Not sure if that would have helped much - especially if professors are trying to fit Friday exams in before break. Maybe LU could ask professors please no exams on Friday?

Anyway - rough way to end the home schedule.

[ballcoach15]

I doubt if there is a successful FBS program in the country that draws 25% of their crowds from the opposition fan base, and I have no desire to be the first.
[/quote]

It's just 1 game, but when VT plays at UVA, VT fans are probably 25% or more, in the crowd

[BlueBlood]

I keep wondering if the ASUN and C-USA can work together schedule wise. The ASUN commish seems like a creative guy. If there was one commish to entertain something kind of "out there", I think it might be him.

The two conferences geographically overlap each other pretty significantly. I'm thinking that maybe the conferences reduce the amount of conference games they play, but incorporate a sizeable amount of OoC games against the other conference to aid scheduling (like play FIU and FGCU in the same trip, one being a conference game, the other being out of conference). Same with Lipscomb and MTSU, etc. Let stranded schools like FIU and LT play the other conference quite a bit. Despite cooperative scheduling, both conferences would keep their tournaments and auto bids separate.

Let the ASUN run all the sports that C-USA doesn't have enough teams to support.

Just brainstorming. Honestly, C-USA probably needs something like this to survive.

EDIT: You know, just combine the administration of both conferences and let Ted Gumbart run both (entities still kept separate for auto-bid purposes, but administered by the same office). Actually, I think that would be his third conference, as he has still has the swimming conference too. It would allow flexibility in scheduling and fluidity in moving teams from FCS to FBS.

[alabama24]

I forgot students are gone. Every opportunity we have for big crowd, usually students are gone.

Which is why Indy stinks. It is why a conference with JMU, Marshall, and ODU would have been great for Liberty. But some are too blind to see it.

[Sly Fox]

That ship has sailed, Bama.

Speaking of ships, it is looking like the rats are jumping for any available life raft in Greater Nashville.

Honestly I am surprised at the pace of events in this arena. You wouldn't think that the MAC would be in a rush. It is not like there are other available options for either school.

[BlueBlood]

I'm a little surprised. I've said before on here - I see the MAC as the most boring conference out there. A whole lot of schools that that seem redundant and complacent.

FIU and LT join the ASUN and go independent in football?

[BlueBlood]

Do the remaining 3 still get the exit fees with 11 leaving? $3M x 11 = $33M. Or is the departure % so high that it nullifies any recovery? I guess the answer to that is key before LT, UTEP and FIU consider making a move.

[rmiller1959]

That ship has sailed, Bama.

Speaking of ships, it is looking like the rats are jumping for any available life raft in Greater Nashville.

Honestly I am surprised at the pace of events in this arena. You wouldn't think that the MAC would be in a rush. It is not like there are other available options for either school.

If Liberty was considering joining C-USA as long as MTSU and WKU stayed put, that's out the window. I was of the mindset that if they expanded to a 12-team playoff, being in a conference, even C-USA, would be a ticket to a better bowl game or even a shot at the CFP as opposed to being an independent. Now I'm not even sure C-USA survives realignment.

14 seems to be the minimum number conferences are looking for, so let's say Boise State and Memphis go to the Big 12. UTEP or NMSU could replace Boise State, and maybe Memphis' departure gives La. Tech an opening? I wish I could see a path for Liberty, but I don't.

[Liberty22]

I forgot students are gone. Every opportunity we have for big crowd, usually students are gone.

Which is why Indy stinks. It is why a conference with JMU, Marshall, and ODU would have been great for Liberty. But some are too blind to see it.

Right because having a big conference game against JMU with no students is so much different than a independent big game with no students.

[paradox]

I forgot students are gone. Every opportunity we have for big crowd, usually students are gone.

Which is why Indy stinks. It is why a conference with JMU, Marshall, and ODU would have been great for Liberty. But some are too blind to see it.

Yeah...we are definitely better off doing that instead of playing VT, UVA, Wake, Army, BYU, and Duke.

Are these ODU games really that big of a draw? It's nice we have them on our schedule, but it's not exactly what would be called a big deal or something.

[TH Spangler]

I forgot students are gone. Every opportunity we have for big crowd, usually students are gone.

Which is why Indy stinks. It is why a conference with JMU, Marshall, and ODU would have been great for Liberty. But some are too blind to see it.

ODU doesn't travel well. They bring 150 fans at best.

[paradox]

We are in a very favorable position....short distance from VT & UVA....and almost squarely in the middle. They will have to play us if we're good. Otherwise, they'll have to answer for their cowardliness. All this goes against the nature of the game. They will play us. Oh wait, they already do.

[BlueBlood]

ODU doesn't travel well. They bring 150 fans at best.

Agree. I went to the ODU game this year and was kind of shocked. They didn't have football for a year, its a short drive and it was a beautiful weekend. Very few fans. No band either (despite short commute and no need for hotels).

Conversely, my daughter and her friends drove to the UAB game and they are going to Ole Miss this week.

[ballcoach15]

ODU simply "doesn't move the needle" for football. They are only 1/2 a notch above Longwood and Radford as a NCAA D1 athletic program.