[ATrain]

It will take us a few years to be competitive in football and basketball if we get to the Sun Belt. We should have been dominating every sport in the BS for some time now, based on our facilities and budget. Pretty disappointing that we haven't done better, especially in basketball and football.

I think women's basketball will be close to the top of that conference.

[Sly Fox]

I think it might surprise some how quick we become competitive in football. We have seen other transition schools load up on FBS transfers before they formally become FBS schools themselves. I also suspect everyone will be amaed t the HUGE leap in the caliber of athlete that we can recruit without the Big South tag on us.

[Purple Haize]

I think it might surprise some how quick we become competitive in football. We have seen other transition schools load up on FBS transfers before they formally become FBS schools themselves. I also suspect everyone will be amaed t the HUGE leap in the caliber of athlete that we can recruit without the Big South tag on us.

But so can the schools we are competing against

[TH Spangler]

For the most part FCS recruits closer to home than FBS schools. We might have a slight advantage over some FBS schools, like APP, ODU.

[CinciFlame]

Today is the day we could find out if we've secured the needed votes. It's been a long time coming.

[jcmanson]

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2014 ... ion_1.html

[soccer7]

That article just put the final nail in the coffin of my hopes for LU to be included in the SunBelt Conference.

[soccer7]

Thank you Purple for getting my hopes up agian a few months ago....I blame this agony on you:)

[CinciFlame]

And that wraps that up. I'm really not a Debbie downer, but this is really bad news for our hopes of every going FBS. The SB is one step up from fcs and from that interview it appears we may not even be voted on. We basically have no other option at this point but to stay in the lowly Big South. Very frustrating.

[SumItUp]

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2014 ... ion_1.html

sounds like a punt for 2014

[CinciFlame]

That's not just a punt, but a solid ejection of Liberty.

[Rooster Cogburn]

Or a smokescreen. Not holding my breath, but who knows with this crazy mess.

[SumItUp]

Or a smokescreen. Not holding my breath, but who knows with this crazy mess.

Maybe it's a fake punt. We've already been fooled by that once in the past year.

[CinciFlame]

That would make Benson look foolish. Not happening this year.

[jlread]

Maybe he wants all 11 members to stay happy during the other 99% of their meetings. Then the last day while packing up he says "now for the last task on the agenda" adding liberty say "I" ... Boom done lets go home!!

[flamesfilmguy]

is accepting applications for membership.

instead of snowman she meant: "Do you want to Talk realignment?"
[youtube]

[/youtube]

[CinciFlame]

So let's discuss options at this point.

[Sly Fox]

For the record, if we are not voted in by tomorrow then I would not consider it an outright rejection as some suggest. That would only be the case if they brought in NMSU olympic sports or offered a delayed entry to Missouri State or EKU. All this is indicating is that they now feel they don't need a 12th to get a CCG based on the ACC speculation. We still stand as the most attractive available option and will likely continue to be so for another year or so.

[alabama24]

That sounds like a "no" to me.

[Rooster Cogburn]

So let's discuss options at this point.

Win the big south outright and go to the playoffs!

[LUconn]

Why not just wait until the end of the meetings before proclaiming it over for this year. Does the poster who shows the earliest indignation get a prize?

[CinciFlame]

How much more clear do you want it? The commissioner of the conference states no expansion will be made. Astate has said the same thing.

[LUconn]

Except that he didn't say that.

[jcmanson]

The quote from Benson everyone is discussing (taken from the AL.com article I referenced):

Q: Will there be any movement this week on conference membership?

A: I'm not expecting that any decision will be made and that we will continue to evaluate and assess. As much as I've gone on record and indicated a strong desire to get to 12 teams, not just for football, but for all sports, I don't think we need to rush to a decision. We're still in a period of transition. We're adding App State (Appalachian State) and Georgia Southern. These meetings are the first time in three years that there isn't somebody serving a lame duck season. All 11 teams are in the Sun Belt and planning and preparing and trying to build the Sun Belt. We finally have a full set of members around the table here this week and as we go into next season, everyone is in and that's what we should be focusing on and building what we have.

[VAGolf]

I'll say this: quite often before a team is added, there is almost a deafening silence or a flat out denial that it's even being discussed. This is also true for new coach hirings. How many times do you hear a coach say, "I'm not even entertaining interviews," only for him to leave shortly. And for the record, Benson didn't even say that they aren't adding a team.

I'm still not leaning either way on this, I think our chances are still 50/50. But if there is anything to take away from that interview, it's the change of tone with Benson. In every other interview, he's seemed to address the urgency of adding a 12th member. In this interview, that urgency is totally gone.

Also, I could be wrong but I don't think Benson has publicly uttered the name, "Liberty" in quite some time. He's talked about other schools NOT joining the Sun Belt but he hasn't said that we aren't joining or we don't have the votes. If we aren't in, he really has nothing to gain by hiding that from everyone. If he publicly mentions that Liberty isn't being invited, he's going to garner support. On the contrary, if we are invited, there will be a lot of angry fans. My point is that I think this is far from over, until Jerry or Benson mention that we aren't/are invited.