A Sea Of Red

Class of 20Something wrote: ↑September 23rd, 2021, 2:00 pm We need to remember ceilings and floors. Going to a subpar G5 conference does limit the ceiling but it also raises the floor for all sports. The American or a regionally aligned Appalachian conference would both mean greater chances for all teams to compete via multi bid leagues, football benefits from familiarity and rivalry, and frankly the fan experience will get better because we will show up better for those teams.

I don't feel like re-typing what I already said in my post above haha but I disagree with this whole heartedly. It raises the floor for the other sports by how much? I would say IF it raises the floor it raises it an inch and not much more. It lowers our ceiling way more than it raises the floor. There is absolutely nothing wrong with us dominating our league. Who cares that there are a bunch of boring, spread out teams that will never truly compete with us. That's a good thing. Why? Because it gets us into the national tournaments in every sport every year. People may knock our conference every year by saying, well it's the ASUN but the moment we get into the tournament and win a few games no one will care. It becomes a "Cinderella run" and that type of success in the tournament is what draws more recruits. But when you start doing that in tournaments every year, it's no longer a cinderella run but a successful program that P5's want to add. I would argue that raises the floor more than a fledgling G5 conference affiliation. Independent and ASUN or A-10 or Big East unless AAC or P5 gives us an opportunity to me is the smartest play.

Just get into NCAA Tournament, then win some games. Once you're in, it doesn't matter what conference you're from, for the most part. Sometimes, the conference plays a role in seeding, but to win it all, you have to beat the big boys or girls.

12 team playoffs in trouble? Could be 8? Hope not.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/ ... /49192107/

Sadly, today's Rumor Mill disclosure pretty much reflects what many on here thought could be/would be a stumbling block. I don't think it's a surprise.

rtb72 wrote: ↑September 23rd, 2021, 10:59 pm Sadly, today's Rumor Mill disclosure pretty much reflects what many on here thought could be/would be a stumbling block. I don't think it's a surprise.

What disclosure?

I don't know what the disclosure is...Im just guessing that it had something to do with the AAC not being interested in LU at this time. I am hearing some saying that the AAC is going to add Southern Miss and Marshall and that the Sunbelt will add someone and that someone is looking like JMU. With all of this happening...that would still open up a hole in CUSA. I dont know if LU would be interested in that or not. If CUSA had a deal with espn+ instead of flowsports, it would be much more attractive.

There's nothing wrong with independent.

Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick. "We thoroughly enjoyed being an ACC member for a year," Swarbrick said to ESPN, "but it also gave our fans that comparison. So not only because of their interest but my own, our own assessment, independence remains a priority and important to us."

https://www.espn.com/college-football/s ... dependence

jimflamesfan wrote: ↑September 24th, 2021, 12:13 am I don't know what the disclosure is...Im just guessing that it had something to do with the AAC not being interested in LU at this time. I am hearing some saying that the AAC is going to add Southern Miss and Marshall and that the Sunbelt will add someone and that someone is looking like JMU. With all of this happening...that would still open up a hole in CUSA. I dont know if LU would be interested in that or not. If CUSA had a deal with espn+ instead of flowsports, it would be much more attractive.

Unless you have new info, I would think the AAC is still doing work out west. It seems to be most likely that UAB, Air Force, and CSU are the adds. Perhaps it fell apart out west but I can't imagine they would have abandoned UAB.

The disclosure is nothing new or shattering. In fact it’s not a definitive on anything either. Not sure there’s much to get up or down about in regards to it. We wait and see what happens

It would be sweet if as an indy we could schedule 3 to 4 ACC games per year (one at Williams). If Virginia Tech ever gets a call from the SEC, the ACC not considering us could be like passing on the next ND or BYU setting in the heart of their footprint. Our #1 goal now needs to be getting attendance to around 30k per game.

TH Spangler wrote: ↑September 25th, 2021, 11:14 am It would be sweet if as an indy we could schedule 3 to 4 ACC games per year (one at Williams). If Virginia Tech ever gets a call from the SEC, the ACC not considering us could be like passing on the next ND or BYU setting in the heart of their footprint. Our #1 goal now needs to be getting attendance to around 30k per game.

How can we do that? If we can't even fill the stadium now with a NFL hopeful with a good team plus that wonderful season last year, what would make people want to come see the team play? The locals are not as interested with Liberty at all but that could change if more graduates stick around in the area. The only thing that keeps the stadium going [for the most part] are the students. Honestly the student section should be expanded in other areas to get butts in seats.

cruzan_flame13 wrote: ↑September 25th, 2021, 12:07 pm

TH Spangler wrote: ↑September 25th, 2021, 11:14 am It would be sweet if as an indy we could schedule 3 to 4 ACC games per year (one at Williams). If Virginia Tech ever gets a call from the SEC, the ACC not considering us could be like passing on the next ND or BYU setting in the heart of their footprint. Our #1 goal now needs to be getting attendance to around 30k per game.

How can we do that? If we can't even fill the stadium now with a NFL hopeful with a good team plus that wonderful season last year, what would make people want to come see the team play? The locals are not as interested with Liberty at all but that could change if more graduates stick around in the area. The only thing that keeps the stadium going [for the most part] are the students. Honestly the student section should be expanded in other areas to get butts in seats.

I hear you. I think covid is hurting us this year. On TV Syracuse's attendance looks about like ours. Wake only draws about 25k to 29k. If we could get to 25 to 30k per game we would be inline with a number of ACC teams. Like IM said, we need to be patient. But for now I personally like Indy. Army has a good deal with CBS, ND with NBC. ESPN has been good to us. Maybe another network comes along.

It seems to me that attendance on the Baptist side dropped when they went to reserved seating for everyone but the students. But Rona fears appears to be affecting attendance across the country. There are obvious exceptions, especially with the name brand programs. But if you just jump around channels watching games on Saturdays you'll see most stadiums with huge bare spots. We'll most likely have attendance issues the rest of the year. Although, from scanning the available seats for the remaining games it does appear that attendance should improve some.

I noticed a lot of empty seat in many NFL stadium Sunday.

I think covid is definitely affecting the non student attendance. With the university being so young with most of the growth being within the last 10-15 years I'm not surprised LU is having problems getting people to the stadium. In the short- medium term, regularly selling out our 25k seat stadium should be the goal. In the long term attendance in the 35-40,000 range will put us in very good position in future realignment.

With enrollment reaching similar levels as many other public FBS schools and growing that will help in the long term as the rapidly growing alumni base gets older and their kids start becoming fans. Luckily that great student section will be the gift that keeps on giving for years to come. They clearly have a great time supporting the university and it will pay dividends over time. Even if the students don't stay in Virginia they will be much more likely to go to away games which will indirectly help reach that P5 dream because right now we don't travel well.

We will definitely take a hit after Malik leaves this year but that defense keeps getting better every year and we have some young playmakers on offense that give me hope that we'll remain at least a bowl caliber team moving forward.

We need to get away from so much reserved seating and have more general admission seating.

Yes. The lack of general admission seating hurts the walkup game day attendance. The very last sections...the ends of silver seats...3 of those 4 sections should be general admission. The 4th will stay as the somewhat obligatory empty section for away tickets. It solves two problems. The very end seats in the silver non benchback are going to be the last reserved seats sold. But, people are willing to sit at the 5 yard line last minute if they decide to go with 5 or so of their friends. Need to open up a few GA sections.

Sorry guys, but ACC is NEVER-EVER going to happen, nor any other P5 conference. Let's be realistic. We will eventually get an invitation for the SB, AAC , CUSA. Until then, we need to be the best we can be, where we are.
Don't know how many outside people read this forum, but talking P5, makes us look totally uninformed about reality in general and sports specifically. There are many, many reasons why, some we have zero control over.

Also...since LU owns the mall...there should be a satellite ticket office in the mall...or at the very least somekind of ticket kioske in the mall.

In addition...I know most venues are going all digital for tickets. I think that's a mistake. Some people just want to get a printed ticket...if you had a kiosk at mall...it could ask...you want these printed or sent to your phone.

Also...I really hope if they do decide to continue with the berm seating they make it retractable. They could pull it out for VA Tech and BYU type games...but then push it in for our FCS game like Gardner Webb next year and keep it retracted for the game that the students are on break.

flameshaw wrote: ↑September 25th, 2021, 4:52 pm Sorry guys, but ACC is NEVER-EVER going to happen, nor any other P5 conference. Let's be realistic. We will eventually get an invitation for the SB, AAC , CUSA. Until then, we need to be the best we can be, where we are.
Don't know how many outside people read this forum, but talking P5, makes us look totally uninformed about reality in general and sports specifically. There are many, many reasons why, some we have zero control over.

If our AD is on record saying we are P5 potential I tend to agree. A few years ago many were saying we would never see FBS. Saying we will never play P5 is almost like giving up on Doc's vision, I'm not there yet. We might have to play indy, follow the BYU path.

ATrain wrote: ↑September 16th, 2021, 3:58 pm Big South or MEAC football is dead, one of the two.

Syracuse has partnered with the MEAC

https://www.cnybj.com/su-meac-sign-agre ... nferences/

ballcoach15 wrote: ↑September 25th, 2021, 4:07 pm We need to get away from so much reserved seating and have more general admission seating.

No we don’t People need to buy season tickets

It's going to take a long time to get there but I don't see why they can't become P5 someday. They've got the vision, the resources, powerful allies (and unfortunately enemies) and at least in the athletic department they have the right people. If they can also hire the right president I don't see a reason why we can't eventually reach the highest level of college sports.

“We do want to get back to either 10 or 12 [schools],” Aresco told the Orlando Sentinel on Friday. “We have some good candidates and we’re only dealing with candidates who have approached us — who have expressed an interest in us.”

“We want the timeline to be more compressed,” said Aresco. “We don’t want it to take months. We would rather have it take a few weeks.”
When such a move could happen appears to be sooner rather than later.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/ ... story.html