[From the class of 09]

So over/under 5 years until we are playing D-I FBS football?

[Purple Haize]

Now that is a great question. IF the question asssumes things stay the same with conferences and the BCS I will say OVER. If the question assumes the formation of a "BCS" Super conference (Basically a division with only the CURRENT BCS schools invited) then I would say UNDER. It has been disussed for several years that the top football conferences (Plus ND) would break away and form their own football conference. So the SEC/Pac 10/Big 10/Big 12/Big East would have their own football champion which would leave room for a lot of movement among other football schools.

[jcmanson]

If you don't know what's the "next level" JR was referring to, just ask him. He's on this forum.

[Kricket]

Purple, I don't think it's good to expect miracles either. I think Liberty is pretty well setup for an FBS move. I guess now the only thing left to do is wait and see.

I think the chancellor kept it generic on purpose, because he may not even know what the next level means at this point, but it would be great if he cleared it up.

[logic]

Yes, hints.

Oct. 1 - "It is already helping to recruit the best football players and I believe it will be the catalyst that will launch Liberty Flames football to the FBS (NCAA Division I-A) in years to come"

- Jerry Falwell

He did not say "CAA" level.


December 8th -

Reporter - "Do the new projects include phase II of the football stadium?

Jerry - "It possibly could - we have to keep this one full first. But it does mean a lot of big things for athletics. Moving up to the next level, adding more facities for other sports..."

Now you could argue this two ways - 1. That he meant all of athletics moving up to the next level or 2. Football moving up to the next level.

If he were talking about all of athletics he would have said "those sports" or "all sports" or something similar. But by saying "other sports" he meant -

"moving up to the next level in football and providing more facilities for other sports."

Based on statements by the chancellor and hints by Barber and Rocco throughout their press conferences this year, I would think FBS is a done deal as soon as we can. Let's not forget the current expansion will ready the stadium for 60,000 seats. 60,000 seats > CAA.

[LUGrad2000]

BHAG--FBS Conference (C-USA, MAC, or new Eastern FBS). Any of that would be great! I have not been on campus for almost six years(we are going to do homecoming next year hopefully), but my friends that have been on campus say it is beyond anything they could have imagined back in the mid to late nineties when we were there. To be honest I never would have thought that there would be a thread (I know there have been several before this) discussing the real possibility that we can/will go to FBS. This is what Doc always talked about, but seemed like a dream sitting in convo. God changed my life while I was at Liberty. I will love LU regardless of our affiliation, but it makes me even happier to be a Liberty Flame with the bright future we seem to have. Champions for Christ at the top of FBS sounds pretty good to me.

[jbock13]

My thing is wasn't the stadium expansion supposed to be the 1st in 2010, 2nd in 2011, and 3rd in 2012? I guess I'm wrong... anyways, the whole stadium expansion thing was a clear indicator that we're looking to move up... whatever that may be. Also, I think we could expand to the phase 2, the student section was pretty much full against Savannah State. So imagine when we play JMU this year...

[LUGrad2000]

Flipping between the Deleware/UNH game and the Georgia AAAA state championship. The FCS playoff game is so boring. The attendance is pathetic and their stadium looks like it should include the name municiple.

Chattahoochee up 24-0 late 4th

My high school was one win away, but we return 20 of 22 starters.

Yes I know, first friday free in four months and I am watching football. She was moved to Kinder. and she is exhausted this year, so we will have a date night tomorrow.

[From the class of 09]

My thing is wasn't the stadium expansion supposed to be the 1st in 2010, 2nd in 2011, and 3rd in 2012? I guess I'm wrong... anyways, the whole stadium expansion thing was a clear indicator that we're looking to move up... whatever that may be. Also, I think we could expand to the phase 2, the student section was pretty much full against Savannah State. So imagine when we play JMU this year...

Yeah you are definitely wrong they said 5 years to 30k which would be stage 3 but I've never heard 3 years from anyone. I always thought the 5 years would be ambitious.

[jbock13]

It was reported in the Roanoke media that way, but they would get the facts wrong.

[logic]

Logic,
You're killing me here buddy. NO ONE IS DENYING THAT FBS IS THE GOAL, ASAP even. However, that doesn't mean we wouldn't make an intermediate move to make that goal more possible. It will be A LOT easier to attract suitors from FBS conferences if we are in the CAA.

No actually I really think purple believes that the CAA is the goal..

[Purple Haize]

Which is why your 'logic' is faulty. Perhaps it is because I have spent lifetime spent in athletics but I tend to focus on the NEXT game. If you ignore the next game, and focus on a game in the future, you will not only most likely lose your next one, but the one you are focusing on as well. So yes, leaving the BSC is the next step, and moving to the CAA is a perfect fit in every sport. Once we get there, we can focus on our next step, whatever that may be. (I would be a big fan of racking up a few Sweet 16 appearances and a National Championship in a sport or two) Who is to say the CAA won't make a conference jump?

[Stevev]

I don't know if it has been mentioned on here or not but all of the colleges that have made the move to 1A from 1AA have been state funded universities(CSF, USF, WKU, Marshall, Troy, UAB, and many others). In all my days of following college football and as long as 1AA has been around back to 1981 I can't recall a single private college ever moving up at all so we would certainly be "going against the grain" in that regard. If Villanova makes the move it would be the first that I know about.

Our financial situation as evidenced by that nice video would certainly help the situation as we do move up. I am a bit confused by Dr Falwell in what he means by moving up in responce to the question about phase 2 but hopefully we will find out. I would think that the CAA would the most logical and realistic option right now and since that league is getting so much better they could be looking at moving the whole conference to the highest level. Just look at the success the CAA has had in recent years when in the past it seemed like the Southern Conference was the premier 1AA conference. Times have definately changed for the better in the CAA.

[Sly Fox]

To be perfectly honest, the number of quality private schools that have seen significant enough growth to consider such a step up to FBS is very limited. Most of the major privates were already strong enough to be IA before they split the division into classes. We are a rare breed indeed ... and I consider that a positive. Because we are not beholden to the politics of state governments, we have more flexibility than most schools looking to make the step up.

I think most everyone here agrees that a super FCS conference of top CAA, SoCon + LU moving up together to the FBS level would be cheered by even our most defiant FBS critics.

[Purple Haize]

Sly, you are forgetting of course about the politics of being an 'independent" looking to break into the big time, but I agree with you for the most part.
Going into the CAA and then at some future point having a CAA/SoCon football conference would be great. The only "Grinchism" I would throw into the discussion would be whether or not the hypothetical new conference would be an AQ. If not, would it really make sense for them to join forches and move up? My asnwer would be, it depends

[LUnpretty11]

Sly, you are forgetting of course about the politics of being an 'independent" looking to break into the big time, but I agree with you for the most part.
Going into the CAA and then at some future point having a CAA/SoCon football conference would be great.

He was not saying for us to join this "CAA/SoCon" conference, and then go up together. He was saying that the teams from the CAA that are trying to move up, and the teams from the Socon that are trying to move up, form a conference (with LU included) into the FBS.

[Sly Fox]

Haize - It is true that under current NCAA by-laws there would be an issue with AQ status during a period of several years before receiving certification. Of course if the CAA or another existing league were to put something together it could avoid the issues. Obviously AQs are not an issue for FBS football. But for the remainder of sports something would have to be worked out unless a football-only league were being discussed ... then even an A-Sun or somebody could start sponsoring football for affiliates only and possibly skirt the NCAA challenges.

Another direction could be a league like C-USA adding enough schools to bump up to 16 or more schools utilizing a 3-division format like they had when they first were formed. Perhaps a Southwestern Division, Southern Division & Eastern Division could be formed. Schools like Houston, UCF & ECU are likely to be gone under such a scenario but a group of Eastern school could move up. If after 5 years of having 6 schools together, they coukld split off into their own league. That way nobody would have to lose any AQs for even a year. This is obviously a rather farfetched concept but one that is theoretically viable.

[jbock13]

I hate to be the negative nancy, but all of this is just pure fantasy...

[Sly Fox]

So was our discussion of going FBS just a few years ago. You have to cast a vision and these scenarios become more plausible by the day.

[LUGrad2000]

At the rate we are going we will be the ND and BYU of Evangelical Universities. I remamber walking onto campus for the first time in the fall of 97 and wondering what I had gotten myself into...

[logic]

IMHO being private and not having our hands tied with regards to government purse strings is one of our biggest strengths. In the middle of a recession LU did the following -

1. Added three sports
2. Increased endowment by half a billion
3. Embarked on ambitious building projects (theatre, snowflex, football, upcoming two year building spree, etc)
4. Increased enrollment

Tough to find a public school that did as much the past three years as the majority of their budgets have been cut (cal state schools).

This place is destined for great things - bigger than BYU for sure!

[Kricket]

I hate to be the negative nancy, but all of this is just pure fantasy...

and what did you intend for when starting this thread?

[LUnpretty11]

I hate to be the negative nancy, but all of this is just pure fantasy...

and what did you intend for when starting this thread?

To be hypothetical of course.

[jbock13]

I hate to be the negative nancy, but all of this is just pure fantasy...

and what did you intend for when starting this thread?

I did not mean what I thought about FBS, what I meant was the whole FCS "teams in FCS form super conference and moves up"... there will be so such thing.

[LUconn]

explain where those teams will go.