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Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 6th, 2012, 2:17 pm
by TH Spangler
LINK --->
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1071 ... nce/page/3
3 Plans to Save the Western Athletic Conference
Plan B: Invite an Eastern Seaboard Conference Worth of FCS Candidates
Liberty - Liberty is serious about a move to FBS. Hiring Turner Gill says that. The fact their old FCS coach made over $400K a year says they take building a football program seriously. Liberty is a very large private religious university founded by Jerry Falwell. They had financial problems for years, but when Falwell died his insurance policy erased them. Now they have plenty of money. With over 12,000 residential students and over 60,000+ online students at any time, Liberty has a very real shot of fulfilling their goal of becoming the Notre Dame or BYU of evangelicals. The 12,000 student enrollment should deliver competitive turnouts at the stadium and the online alumnibase could really help TV viewership for a conference as well as pump in revenue as boosters for Liberty's efforts. Was 15th in attendance at the FCS level last year with 16,419 per game.
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 6th, 2012, 2:38 pm
by prototype
I hope not!! I don't want to go up and play the same 1-AA schools - I want to play 1A schools. It would be nice to have all those in-state schools, but I want it all. And the comment about Jerry, Sr.'s life insurance saving us - that's not true. Jerry, Jr and Online is why we are strong today. Not to devalue what Sr. did or how gracious he was to think about liberty before he died, but I'm guessing that money was a drop in the bucket.
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 6th, 2012, 3:14 pm
by adam42381
FGCU doesn't have football. They did a feasibility study last year and concluded that it would be too expensive to add football at the FCS level.
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 6th, 2012, 3:27 pm
by SumItUp
Bleacherreport lacks credibility.
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 6th, 2012, 3:31 pm
by Kolzilla41
SumItUp wrote:Bleacherreport lacks credibility.
This! Bleacherreport is not really a credible source.
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 6th, 2012, 4:36 pm
by jbock13
When I see this sort of thing I don't honestly know whether to laugh or cry. For now I'll just shake my head.
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 6th, 2012, 4:39 pm
by LUconn
Yeah yeah it's a bleacherreport article, and my dog could have written it for all you know, but it's an article that mentions Liberty in regards to conference speculation. It was worth posting.
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 6th, 2012, 4:54 pm
by PAmedic
SLY will be along in a bit to inform you that this may not be as far fetched as some think.
And I'd be willing to bet that he's right. Strange Days Indeed.
Most Peculiar Momma.
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 6th, 2012, 5:07 pm
by LUGrad2000
Makes more geographic sense than the Sun Belt.
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 6th, 2012, 6:24 pm
by Purple Haize
PAmedic wrote:SLY will be along in a bit to inform you that this may not be as far fetched as some think.
And I'd be willing to bet that he's right. Strange Days Indeed.
Most Peculiar Momma.
You can be banned for quoting the most over rated musician of all time! Or his less then attractive wife!
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 6th, 2012, 6:27 pm
by Purple Haize
prototype wrote:I hope not!! I don't want to go up and play the same 1-AA schools - I want to play 1A schools. It would be nice to have all those in-state schools, but I want it all. And the comment about Jerry, Sr.'s life insurance saving us - that's not true. Jerry, Jr and Online is why we are strong today. Not to devalue what Sr. did or how gracious he was to think about liberty before he died, but I'm guessing that money was a drop in the bucket.
The money was VERY significant but Online Jr etc have kept us from going back into the hole. Which is a good thing
As for playing 'other' 1-AA schools, if they moved up to the WAC, they would be 1-A schools( insert FCS/FBS where appropriate). It is somewhat circular but the fact remains. Plus, we don't play those schools NOW on a regular basis, so playing them on the FBS level will be exciting, new and a great boost to our program.
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 6th, 2012, 8:24 pm
by jmdickens
cjsweat wrote: Bleacherreport is a very legit source.
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 6th, 2012, 8:52 pm
by LUconn
hahaha, I'm glad somebody caught that in that other thread.
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 6th, 2012, 9:00 pm
by PAmedic
Purple Haize wrote:PAmedic wrote:SLY will be along in a bit to inform you that this may not be as far fetched as some think.
And I'd be willing to bet that he's right. Strange Days Indeed.
Most Peculiar Momma.
You can be banned for quoting the most over rated musician of all time! Or his less then attractive wife!
I waited all afternoon for you to get on here and see that. At least one other old fart gets it.
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 6th, 2012, 9:52 pm
by Purple Haize
Good thing too or it would be just like starting over!
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 6th, 2012, 11:55 pm
by Sly Fox
Nobody told me there'd be days like these. Wait, I believe this possibility has been mentioned regularly in the Realignment Megathread for about a year now.
While unlikely at this moment, it is not farfetched to have some type of crazy desperation move by the WAC that could involve us. Apparently Benson wasn't down with the concept before bolting to the Sun Belt. But that league is in quite a predicament.
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 7th, 2012, 7:18 am
by Blessed1
The problem with an eastern division of the WAC, especially most of the ones on that list, is the fact they're waiting on the Alliance and the Sun Belt to finalize first.
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 7th, 2012, 9:18 am
by Purple Haize
I like the name Eastern Seaboard Conference.
Or if it is part of the WAC we could call it the WAC- E
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 7th, 2012, 11:23 am
by TH Spangler
I also like the looks of a WAC"E" Conference
. I see a final 4 basketball team, VCU and outstanding basketball tradition at ODU, George Mason and Villanova. I see an FCS football team that won three straight FCS championships, and beat a number #5 Michigan team in front of 110,000 people. In football give teams like ODU, Liberty, Georgia State, JMU, and Jacksonville State, etc the extra FBS scholarships and they could be competitive with the ACC over night. I see some GREAT rivalries in there.
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 7th, 2012, 11:29 am
by Purple Haize
'overnight' might be a bit of a stretch. Ha.
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 7th, 2012, 11:38 am
by Kolzilla41
jmdickens wrote:cjsweat wrote: Bleacherreport is a very legit source.
you've got to be kidding me?
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 7th, 2012, 12:32 pm
by TH Spangler
Purple Haize wrote:'overnight' might be a bit of a stretch. Ha.
In football we are almost competitive now? Take way 4 of the 9 turnovers we had last year against State and we walk way with a "W". JMU kicked VT a couple years ago. Add some FBS scholarships and we're there??
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 7th, 2012, 12:34 pm
by jbock13
I think Liberty should join the East conference with JMU and Richmond. Cause we're good enough. And we're awesome. And plus it will never happen, but since this thread had turned into nothing but dreamland scenarios, I just thought I would share it with you guys.
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 7th, 2012, 1:37 pm
by Purple Haize
jbock13 wrote:I think Liberty should join the East conference with JMU and Richmond. Cause we're good enough. And we're awesome. And plus it will never happen, but since this thread had turned into nothing but dreamland scenarios, I just thought I would share it with you guys.
Because we are good enough, smart enough and dog gone it, people like us!
Re: Liberty - Western Athletic Conference?
Posted: March 7th, 2012, 1:44 pm
by ballcoach15
Richmond's stadium is not big enough for D1. If LU goes D1, I hope we go alone and don't bring any current 1AA schools with us. We need to go to an established D1 confernece and play real D1 schools. playing a bunch of newly created D1 schools ain't gonna help program. The key thing here is LU is a growing school where as 99% of every other school in nation has peaked.