[VAGolf]

Could be Conference mates

Moving from FCS to FBS might not be as difficult as some of you are imagining. When Marshall went from the FCS Southern Conference to the FBS Mid-American Conference (1997), they went 25-2 their first 3 years and won 5 straight bowl games.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_ ... mpionships

That entire situation is in no way comparable to ours or the current era.

[ValleyBoy]

Could be Conference mates

Moving from FCS to FBS might not be as difficult as some of you are imagining. When Marshall went from the FCS Southern Conference to the FBS Mid-American Conference (1997), they went 25-2 their first 3 years and won 5 straight bowl games.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_ ... mpionships

if you really check you will see that in the 6 years prior to that first season in the MAC, Marshall won the FCS Championship 2 times, lost in the finals twice and lost in the semifinals the other 2 years. Just from these facts I would have to say that Marshall was in a better position to compete at the FBS level when they moved up.
Also the NCAA changed transition rules because of Marshall.

[LUinPA]

Putting aside the debate on whether this was a good move or not…
Would we be getting as much coverage (good or bad) if we’d been invited from a specific conference; i.e. Sun Belt or C-USA?

[Purple Haize]

Putting aside the debate on whether this was a good move or not…
Would we be getting as much coverage (good or bad) if we’d been invited from a specific conference; i.e. Sun Belt or C-USA?

Sunbelt: No
CUSA: Yes

[ValleyBoy]

Putting aside the debate on whether this was a good move or not…
Would we be getting as much coverage (good or bad) if we’d been invited from a specific conference; i.e. Sun Belt or C-USA?

I would say the coverage would be about the same if Liberty was joining either the Sun Belt or C-USA. Now the coverage would be different if joining one of the two listed conference's, such as who else will be added by the conference to get back to an even number. One reason Liberty is getting a lot of attention is because of the NCAA granting a waiver on the conference invite rule.

[gerb]

We're now listed on FBSchedules:

http://www.fbschedules.com/ncaa/indep/l ... flames.php
.

[LUaddict]

I'm as excited as the next guy to make it to the FBS. Just hope we learn from cautionary tales of FBS Indy such as FAMU's case study.

That time FAMU nearly made it in college football's top level, but the timing was all wrong

Billy Joe turned Florida A&M into an FCS powerhouse and had visions of something bigger. You don't really know what the high point was until after the fact. You don't really know where the peak was until you've begun to come down

http://www.sbnation.com/platform/amp/co ... ent=safari

[Purple Haize]

I'm as excited as the next guy to make it to the FBS. Just hope we learn from cautionary tales of FBS Indy such as FAMU's case study.

That time FAMU nearly made it in college football's top level, but the timing was all wrong

Billy Joe turned Florida A&M into an FCS powerhouse and had visions of something bigger. You don't really know what the high point was until after the fact. You don't really know where the peak was until you've begun to come down

http://www.sbnation.com/platform/amp/co ... ent=safari

They had on field success but apparently not the money. LU has the money but not the on field success. It will be interesting to see how the fan base holds if there are some 3-9 4-8 seasons

[ballcoach15]

Thank the Lord we are getting out of BSC. (even with the new logo). Playing "big boy" football is better than FCS any day.

[Ethall15]

Have not been on board in a while but man I have to say this a true blessing to finally be FBS. When I was at LU I helped out with the football team and was with the team when we first announced that we were FBS ready. The excitement the coaches had on their faces that day is nothing compared to what I saw when the announcement was made the other day. I myself was shocked that it happened this quick especially after being shut down by Sun Belt. I would love to see a rivalry with BYU and eventually ND and have a series similar to what the military schools do which I know was mentioned earlier in this post. I know that the first few years of being FBS will be tough but I know this staff can fight through it. We may not get the marque match ups that fans want like UVA and VA Tech at home but we will get a good rivalry with ODU and I hope continue the rivalry with Coastal. App State would be a good add as well as Charlotte. What I am interested to see is how our schedule plays out but also how this increases recruiting. We missed out on that 4 star that wanted to play both football and baseball and ended up choosing Arkansas and then this off season lost that 3 star DE to I believe Furman. Sorry for the long post guys but I am a very proud alum and I am going to make every effort to be there for our first official FBS game in 2018.

[Ethall15]

Could be Conference mates

Moving from FCS to FBS might not be as difficult as some of you are imagining. When Marshall went from the FCS Southern Conference to the FBS Mid-American Conference (1997), they went 25-2 their first 3 years and won 5 straight bowl games.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_ ... mpionships

if you really check you will see that in the 6 years prior to that first season in the MAC, Marshall won the FCS Championship 2 times, lost in the finals twice and lost in the semifinals the other 2 years. Just from these facts I would have to say that Marshall was in a better position to compete at the FBS level when they moved up.
Also the NCAA changed transition rules because of Marshall.

Also they had Chad Pennington and Randy Moss..... well just Randy Moss. If we had a receiver of that caliber going into FBS then our transition might be better. Also having Buckshot for the first years will be YYYUUUUGEEEE!

[RedSpinPod]

Episode 9 includes FBS discussion as well as an interview with AD Ian Mccaw.

https://goo.gl/6irHvD

[Purple Haize]

Since everyone seems obsessed with ND playing LU let's take a look at that. The very first question is: Why would ND play LU? What does it benefit them? They are currently tied into basically an ACC schedule, so any geographical recruiting advantage would be served by playing Tech or UVA. Their OOC schedule will consistently if not annually have Army, Navy, USC and Stanford. Throw in a Top 25 team and/or Regional/ B1G team. Where does LU fit in.
Make your case to the ND schedulers -Go.....

[Ethall15]

Since everyone seems obsessed with ND playing LU let's take a look at that. The very first question is: Why would ND play LU? What does it benefit them? They are currently tied into basically an ACC schedule, so any geographical recruiting advantage would be served by playing Tech or UVA. Their OOC schedule will consistently if not annually have Army, Navy, USC and Stanford. Throw in a Top 25 team and/or Regional/ B1G team. Where does LU fit in.
Make your case to the ND schedulers -Go.....

I do not personally think we will play them any time soon or they will be on our first schedule as an FBS. I think it would be great to play them but we would not compete against them for some time until we get some FBS recruiting classes in place. So I would say at the earliest we could have them on schedule for 2022 or so. Again it depends on openings as far as schedules are concerned.

[Purple Haize]

Since everyone seems obsessed with ND playing LU let's take a look at that. The very first question is: Why would ND play LU? What does it benefit them? They are currently tied into basically an ACC schedule, so any geographical recruiting advantage would be served by playing Tech or UVA. Their OOC schedule will consistently if not annually have Army, Navy, USC and Stanford. Throw in a Top 25 team and/or Regional/ B1G team. Where does LU fit in.
Make your case to the ND schedulers -Go.....

I do not personally think we will play them any time soon or they will be on our first schedule as an FBS. I think it would be great to play them but we would not compete against them for some time until we get some FBS recruiting classes in place. So I would say at the earliest we could have them on schedule for 2022 or so. Again it depends on openings as far as schedules are concerned.

Not really a great case for one of the 4 open dates in 2022 for ND.

[Class of 20Something]

http://247sports.com/Season/2017-Footba ... ence=C-USA

Something to toy with. With us barely missing out on a couple key recruits, I really think that the jump to FBS alone with get LU at least into the middle of the pack. Going from two 3* recruits a class to seven would put us well into the top half of G5 recruiting. CUSA, SBC, and MAC had no 4* or 5* recruits this year. The MWest had one 4* to Boise St. I think we can realistically accomplish those recruiting numbers within the next 5 years.

Mini-rant: Our coaches have a magical way of getting oil from a garden hose with the no name recruits while simultaneously hindering the abilities of our highest rated ones. Can we all imagine what last season would have looked like if our WR corps could reign in the cannon fire from Buckshot? Do we have a place for stats with drops per game?

[Purple Haize]

http://247sports.com/Season/2017-Footba ... ence=C-USA

Something to toy with. With us barely missing out on a couple key recruits, I really think that the jump to FBS alone with get LU at least into the middle of the pack. Going from two 3* recruits a class to seven would put us well into the top half of G5 recruiting. CUSA, SBC, and MAC had no 4* or 5* recruits this year. The MWest had one 4* to Boise St. I think we can realistically accomplish those recruiting numbers within the next 5 years.

Mini-rant: Our coaches have a magical way of getting oil from a garden hose with the no name recruits while simultaneously hindering the abilities of our highest rated ones. Can we all imagine what last season would have looked like if our WR corps could reign in the cannon fire from Buckshot? Do we have a place for stats with drops per game?

Imagine what Briles will do!

[TH Spangler]

We need some 3 star offensive linemen. Receiver are good.

[ballcoach15]

I am not too excited about playing Appy State. They were FCS themselves not too long ago. If it means playing them to fill out schedule then I guess it's OK. Same goes for ODU.

[Cider Jim]

I am not too excited about playing Appy State.

Let me guess--you want Tech, Bama, Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Michigan on the schedule, right?

[LUnpretty11]

I'd be ecstatic with a H/H with App St and ODU.

Recruiting is a great piece of this discussion.

What are everyone's recruiting expectations for 2018 and beyond?

[BJWilliams]

I am not too excited about playing Appy State.

Let me guess--you want Tech, Bama, Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Michigan on the schedule, right?

All in Lynchburg of course

[ALAFlamesFan]

My expectations are somewhat modest at first. If we could recruit next year like a top FCS program I would be happy. In 3 -5 years I expect to recruit like a mid level MAC program.

We need to stockpile linemen, redshirt them and develop them.

[VAGolf]

Here's an interesting debate:

Are we now a more prestigious program than JMU?

Not that they would, but if JMU called IM and asked for a game, would we oblige? Or are we to the point now where that game would do more harm than good? Seems like the tables have turned from 5 years ago.

[Class of 20Something]

My expectations are somewhat modest at first. If we could recruit next year like a top FCS program I would be happy. In 3 -5 years I expect to recruit like a mid level MAC program.

We need to stockpile linemen, redshirt them and develop them.

As a Dallas Cowboys fan and a Liberty fan, the disparity between the lines hurts. It was nice being disappointed on Saturdays to watching in awe on Sundays. A great OLine could really separate us early. I absolutely agree with your assessment.