[Sly Fox]

That's why we want you to register. The guest designation is awful and I have bounced the idea ofd requiring registration around awhile. But you don't have to register to use a name. You should at least do what Realist did by posting under a name to keep us arrogant LU guys in check. Admittedly we won him over to the idea of registering after some time.

We've heard that reportedly we've had as many as 14k applications for this fall and we're letting about a third of them. That's just rumor but I've heard it from multiple sources. Our school has these growth spurts about every 4-5 years when we up the ante on marketing.

As for VMI having name recognition, I'll grant you they are probably right behind LU.

For the record, I am a big fan of what Winthrop & CCU are doing and I'd love maintain relationships with both schools no matter where we wind up going in I-A.

[ccujacket]

I think both Sly and the Guest are way off on this name recognition thing.

The school with the best name recognition is VMI and I don't think it's particularly close. VMI has more history and tradition as a school than the rest of the Big South combined, IMO. I never heard of any of the rest of the schools in the Big South until I went to Coastal and I was born and raised in Georgia, so at least I was close.

As far as name recognition for athletics, none of us have it.

This is the ultimate in big fish/small pond scenarios.

[Guest]

I think you are mostly correct ccujacket - but just thinking of the national headlines in the past year we have:

CCU #1 seed in baseball, football has made some noise, hiring Buzz Peterson
Winthrop basketball and baseball
Liberty girls basketball and when Gado started getting game time with the packers Liberty was mentioned many times.

So these obviously won't make any of us household names but they are a step in the right direction. We should all be recognizable to the moderately knowledgeable college sports fan.

[fsn32]

The last ten years Coastal and Liberty are the only teams to win Sassar Cups and no one else has really been close. Liberty has won more in that time frame but Coastal has the trophy now... so athletically it is a draw for now. Facilities are close too... Winthrop may get the edge with their new soccer, softball, baseball facility.

Name-wise... it is close too. But regardless of whether you think JF is a joke... everytime he is on TV it says "Liberty U." so in my opinion the only team with a bigger name is VMI... mainly because of all the attention they got over the female situation. Also, you may say that no one cares about Women's basketball... but the Sweet 16 got Liberty in every Newspaper and TV highlight in America for a week. Good Pub.

[Sly Fox]

Jacket -- I wasn't talking about athletics department name recognition. I was talking about school recognition and while VMI obviously has volumes more history than anyone else int he league, they are rarely if ever in the news or public eye since they opened their doors to the ladies. I also agree that this discussion is pointless.

[jcmanson]

I have also heard that we will be pushing 15,000 aps and can only accept around 4,000 for '06-'07 school year.

[Rocketfan]

Wow.....hahaha what a joke.....thanks for the laugh!

[PAmedic]

Personally, I gave up arguing this one a while ago. Being an LU alum, of course my view is slanted. But I've seen tons of coverage of Jerry, any one of his number of political organizations over the years, and LU on the major networks, incl cable news shows- over the years.

Even weird stuff: you'll see the Doc giving his opinion on any given topic on a show like George Stephanophalis' (sp?) or Meet the Press, or Larry King. Somehow Jerry manages to get a shout-out to LU in there!

I think that is the main reason you could argue that LU brings the MOST name recognition to what is a small, regional sports conference. No offense intended, but Liberty has a global outreach- most people north of VA have never heard of Radford, Charleston Southern, BSC or CCU. Its just a fact- though that will change due to Winthrop MBB and CCU FB if they continue their impressive runs.

I await my verbal beating.

[ccujacket]

I still think VMI is the most recognizable name, but I did draw a parallel here. VMI is in history books no one reads. Liberty is on infomercials no one watches. But, I still think when you added up the people in the military now and the veterans, military buffs, history buffs, men who are or were in any of the three lexington fraternities, anyone who has seen "Gods and Generals", or heard of Patton, Stonewall Jackson, George C Marshall, come on.

I'll just say this, before I came to Coastal I hadn't heard of any Big South school other than VMI. I had seen Dr Falwell on TV and probably saw the infomercials but either didn't notice or just flipped through too fast. I've still never met anyone associated with Liberty in person, other than seeing their players and fans at games.

[PAmedic]

Hey, I love history. I was a HIST-ED major, in fact.

These days I'm relegated to watching as much of the History Channel and History Channel International as I can, along with The Military Channel (thanks DirecTv) but I can appreciate that perspective too!

[SuperJon]

The military channel is effing awesome.