[Purple Haize]

Marketing to church groups cheapens the value of your product.

[sstaedtler]

Playing most P5 schools will bring fans.(ACC, SEC or Big 12)

How did that work out playing a Top 25 ACC team last year

In fairness, Syracuse is a long, long way from Lynchburg. If we were playing Virginia Tech, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, NC State, Duke, Wake Forest, you'd get many more road fans. Last year our home schedule was pathetic. New Mexico, New Mexico State, 2 FCS teams, UMass, and a MAC team from NY. None of those will attract road fans. I think with LIberty's exposure this year they are starting to develop some new fans who have no affiliation with the school.

[Purple Haize]

Playing most P5 schools will bring fans.(ACC, SEC or Big 12)

How did that work out playing a Top 25 ACC team last year

In fairness, Syracuse is a long, long way from Lynchburg. If we were playing Virginia Tech, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, NC State, Duke, Wake Forest, you'd get many more road fans. Last year our home schedule was pathetic. New Mexico, New Mexico State, 2 FCS teams, UMass, and a MAC team from NY. None of those will attract road fans. I think with LIberty's exposure this year they are starting to develop some new fans who have no affiliation with the school.

So Regional P5. That’s not what he said.

[JK37]

In fairness, Syracuse has never traveled well for football. Now basketball?

[LUOrange]

With Syracuse, it would've been different as well if they had been good for a long period of time. They had just come off of a season where they're seniors had blossomed at the end of their careers. Had we been 1-A in the 90's or early 2000's and a Dick MacPherson or Paul Pasqualoni led Orangemen team came to the Bill, I think we would've packed the place. Just as I think we'd sell out for BYU, Boise, or UCF right now. I, also think the Orangemen MBB team would definitely sell out the Little Arena or the Vines Center.

[LUDad]

https://accsports.com/acc-news/football ... n-the-acc/

See attached article. Though it is around 18 months old, it shows the struggles that ACC teams have getting fans into the seats. As Sly said, it is all about winning at a high level. If team continues to improve, as they will with this coaching staff, we will be complaining about lack of available tickets in the near future.

EDIT: no jokes about lack of tickets now

[bluedevilflame]

4 regional schools I'd like to see on a regular basis:

-Marshall
-West VA
-Navy
-Maryland

[sstaedtler]

Agree with all of these! If they play at

4 regional schools I'd like to see on a regular basis:

-Marshall
-West VA
-Navy
-Maryland

Agree with all these. If they play at Navy, I'm going. Maybe Maryland also. Being near Philly, I obviously would love them to play Temple for selfish reasons.

[ballcoach15]

Still projected for Boca Raton Bowl vs UCF

[sstaedtler]

I have seen 5 projections. 3 of them have us vs. UCF. One has us versus Louisiana. And the other has us vs. FAU.

[CCWMichael]

I saw one matching us with Kentucky. Regardless of record I would much rather have a P5 to beat on a bowl. Looking back 50 years from now and Kentucky is listed as a win opposed to anyone else is much better. Lets beat an SEC!

[JK37]

Play KY in basketball, then I’ll be happy. They’re not a real SEC football team.

[jimflamesfan]

Because as was stated before - church groups aren't the audience you think it is. They want discounted tickets at $5/ticket, not $15-$20/ticket. The return on investment in those marketing efforts isn't there.

John, I said getting Sparky to go to the churches promoting the Flames Kids club. NOT GROUP TICKETS.
This is NOT the same thing as selling group tickets to churches. The Flames Kids Club allows kids under 12 to get in for free when their parents pay for a ticket. I''ve seen how good this works. I've taken two different families from church to games with me. I tell them...you know if you want to come again...your kids can get in free with you to any game if you pay $25 a kid to join the Flames Kids club. This is a good deal so they do that. Then they go to a couple of games that year...and the next year they decide to get season tickets for themselves...and use the kids club for their kids. I've seen this happen twice in the last 4 years. The Flames Kids club is a way of converting families with young ones into season ticket holders. If you want to market to Christian families with kids...help out the churches by handing out freebees and flavored crushed ice during VBS. Promote Flames Kids Club...not group church tickets. Really the cost for this is some cheap promotional material and 2 part time summer work study jobs. Just wanted to clarify. Thanks!

[tyndal23]

TCU would be my first pick of all teams so far. Don’t want UCF or Tenn. ( ok I would love Tenn if we beat them ) but TCU would be a game.

[ballcoach15]

Tennessee with 2 wins should not be allowed to watch a bowl on TV, much less play in one.

[Jonathan Carone]

[thepostman]

Yeah, that has been discussed before and has been in the back of my mind. Question is, are bowls contractually obligated to pick a team from the conferences they are affiliated with even if a school has a losing record? l I'm guessing so which will make it extremely tough to make a bowl game. I'm hoping there is some kind of loophole because this has been a great year for our guys.

[flamehunter]

How many bowl games will be cancelled? That could impact our chances biggly. I've seen one cancelled already, the Pinstripe bowl.

[sstaedtler]

Per Brett McMurphy - ' Liberty may not receive bowl bid even though Flames could finish 10-1, sources told
@Stadium
. Reason is LU doesn't have guaranteed bowl tie-in & w/out any win requirements for teams to be bowl eligible, bowls expected to fill w/their designated conference affiliations source said"

This would be awful and such a travesty.

[LUAlum1215]

If exceptions can be made for a team to become bowl eligible regardless of wins, why shouldn't an exception be made to get a 10-1 top 25 team in should we be in that position? I have a hard time thinking we don't make a bowl, and an even harder time thinking we don't make one because a conference wanted 3 win Kentucky (or whatever other crap team that makes a bowl) in over a team in our situation.

[Jonathan Carone]

If exceptions can be made for a team to become bowl eligible regardless of wins, why shouldn't an exception be made to get a 10-1 top 25 team in should we be in that position? I have a hard time thinking we don't make a bowl, and an even harder time thinking we don't make one because a conference wanted 3 win Kentucky (or whatever other crap team that makes a bowl) in over a team in our situation.

Three win SEC team brings more fans - both in person or on tv - than a 10-1 Liberty team. It's just the reality of the situation.

Look at the primetime ESPN games this coming weekend. You've got two ranked teams with one loss between them and it's getting pushed to ESPNU at 2pm in favor of P5 games with teams with worse records. It's just the economics of college football.

[FlamesHighontheTide]

I think Brett McMurphy is smoking something with his post about us potentially not getting into a bowl game. Could it happen? Sure, but from what I am hearing, Ian has already had conversations with bowl games that want us. Plus, every major college football bowl projection has us in a bowl game. Either Brett knows more than all of them or he is grasping at straws.

[ballcoach15]

How many bowl games will be cancelled? That could impact our chances biggly. I've seen one cancelled already, the Pinstripe bowl.

As of now, I believe 8 bowl games have been canceled. Most are "northern bowls".

[ballcoach15]

Is Mcmurphy one of those Liberty haters ?

[alabama24]

For all the "G5 Elite" warriors out there, this is a consequence of being independent.

I wonder if it is too late to schedule a late December game with Hawaii?