A Sea Of Red

If you've listened to McKay's interviews, including on the ASOR Podcast, he's begun referencing his goal of LU playing for a national title.

I don’t have anything to say about Dot as a coach, but man does she love hearing herself talk

Perception vs Reality.

Near term Perception - LU is a top 35 Team, maybe even top 25 after Phil Steele comes out and maybe 1 or 2 other publications. Amazing and insignificant at the same time - amazing in the short time we have been FBS, insignificant as there are always 3-5 G5 teams “touted” preseason and around 3-4 on average in final top 25 with 1 or 2 losses vs inferior completion.

Reality - we are a top 85 Program when factoring in recruiting, SOS, history, perception ( most people never heard if us until this year’s Cure Bowl). Most people still don’t know who UAB is even after the most impressive year in CFB history after having their Program completely shut down.

Big difference in Perception of a Program vs a Team. How does LU get to being a top 10 Program vs an occasional Top 25 team? I am not talking about Boise State or UCF or Cinci - stat based “ Programs” who play 1-2 P5 games a year that “default” in to Top 25 Programs when every P5 conference fan base know they wouldn’t be .500 in their conference.

Reality - is winning vs bottom 1/3 of P5 harder than winning vs top 10 of G5? - maybe a coin toss. Is the Perception different? Absolutely. Is the TV $ and home and home or 1 off away games different ? Absolutely. So once again, my question is why are we scheduling top 10 G5 instead of bottom 1/3 P5 teams if our goal is to be the ND,USC,Alabama of CFB. Address all replies to Dot Richardson @ LU softball HC

tyndal23 wrote: ↑April 26th, 2021, 10:51 pm Perception vs Reality.

Near term Perception - LU is a top 35 Team, maybe even top 25 after Phil Steele comes out and maybe 1 or 2 other publications. Amazing and insignificant at the same time - amazing in the short time we have been FBS, insignificant as there are always 3-5 G5 teams “touted” preseason and around 3-4 on average in final top 25 with 1 or 2 losses vs inferior completion.

Reality - we are a top 85 Program when factoring in recruiting, SOS, history, perception ( most people never heard if us until this year’s Cure Bowl). Most people still don’t know who UAB is even after the most impressive year in CFB history after having their Program completely shut down.

Big difference in Perception of a Program vs a Team. How does LU get to being a top 10 Program vs an occasional Top 25 team? I am not talking about Boise State or UCF or Cinci - stat based “ Programs” who play 1-2 P5 games a year that “default” in to Top 25 Programs when every P5 conference fan base know they wouldn’t be .500 in their conference.

Reality - is winning vs bottom 1/3 of P5 harder than winning vs top 10 of G5? - maybe a coin toss. Is the Perception different? Absolutely. Is the TV $ and home and home or 1 off away games different ? Absolutely. So once again, my question is why are we scheduling top 10 G5 instead of bottom 1/3 P5 teams if our goal is to be the ND,USC,Alabama of CFB. Address all replies to Dot Richardson @ LU softball HC

I wouldn't mind playing Pitt, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech and some others. The question is do they want to play us considering many factors of why it would be a risk for them. Love Coach Dot optimism of "why not doing whatever it takes." It's a bit similar to what you were saying, but we will need to do more in order to be considered. We need to expand campus and continue to develop/ fund academia. Could we do this a bit more quicker than what those 'grandfather' schools had to take? Most likely. I definitely think they'll need a long term blue print [plan] to do this. As Coach Dot mentioned in that interview, I am sure McCaw has all these thoughts in mind.

Playing P5 teams is better for Liberty than playing G5 teams.

A Sea of Red wrote: ↑April 13th, 2021, 8:11 am If you've listened to McKay's interviews, including on the ASOR Podcast, he's begun referencing his goal of LU playing for a national title.

After taking over the dumpster fire he inherited, Ritchie initially was pretty conservative in his expressed goals, but before the end of the first year his mantra had become "I don't want to place any limitations on what this team can achieve." I'm sure we will continue to hear that, but the national championship mentions are a welcome addition.

I'm all in favor of playing more P-5's, but more importantly, I'd like to see us eliminate the FCS games. At least we're down to 1 a tear now. However, it appears that we maybe in a holding patter for now, as we really haven't added much to the schedule the last year or so. Perhaps, McCaw and others are waiting to see what may happen the next couple of years with possible realignment.

Liberty should always schedule one ( and only 1 ) FCS school that's a 99.999 % sure win. Some years it might be difference between a bowl and no bowl. Heck even Alabama plays 1 FCS school most years, if my memory is correct.

cruzan_flame13 wrote: ↑April 27th, 2021, 2:35 am

tyndal23 wrote: ↑April 26th, 2021, 10:51 pm Perception vs Reality.

Near term Perception - LU is a top 35 Team, maybe even top 25 after Phil Steele comes out and maybe 1 or 2 other publications. Amazing and insignificant at the same time - amazing in the short time we have been FBS, insignificant as there are always 3-5 G5 teams “touted” preseason and around 3-4 on average in final top 25 with 1 or 2 losses vs inferior completion.

Reality - we are a top 85 Program when factoring in recruiting, SOS, history, perception ( most people never heard if us until this year’s Cure Bowl). Most people still don’t know who UAB is even after the most impressive year in CFB history after having their Program completely shut down.

Big difference in Perception of a Program vs a Team. How does LU get to being a top 10 Program vs an occasional Top 25 team? I am not talking about Boise State or UCF or Cinci - stat based “ Programs” who play 1-2 P5 games a year that “default” in to Top 25 Programs when every P5 conference fan base know they wouldn’t be .500 in their conference.

Reality - is winning vs bottom 1/3 of P5 harder than winning vs top 10 of G5? - maybe a coin toss. Is the Perception different? Absolutely. Is the TV $ and home and home or 1 off away games different ? Absolutely. So once again, my question is why are we scheduling top 10 G5 instead of bottom 1/3 P5 teams if our goal is to be the ND,USC,Alabama of CFB. Address all replies to Dot Richardson @ LU softball HC

I wouldn't mind playing Pitt, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech and some others. The question is do they want to play us considering many factors of why it would be a risk for them. Love Coach Dot optimism of "why not doing whatever it takes." It's a bit similar to what you were saying, but we will need to do more in order to be considered. We need to expand campus and continue to develop/ fund academia. Could we do this a bit more quicker than what those 'grandfather' schools had to take? Most likely. I definitely think they'll need a long term blue print [plan] to do this. As Coach Dot mentioned in that interview, I am sure McCaw has all these thoughts in mind.

That’s always going to be the sticking point

tyndal23 wrote: ↑April 26th, 2021, 10:51 pm is winning vs bottom 1/3 of P5 harder than winning vs top 10 of G5?

No (it's probably easier), but scheduling them might be. Bottom 1/3 of P5 have to scratch and claw to be eligible to get to a bowl game. If they view Liberty as a "tough win" (or worse, a "loss"), they won't want to schedule us.

So glad we made it to FBS when we did. I don’t see any conferences inviting any more FCS schools. The better non power conference schools have a better shot at making the 12 team field than the bottom half of the power conference schools do. They have no reason to expand now.

LUOrange wrote: ↑April 27th, 2021, 3:30 pm I'm all in favor of playing more P-5's, but more importantly, I'd like to see us eliminate the FCS games. At least we're down to 1 a tear now. However, it appears that we maybe in a holding patter for now, as we really haven't added much to the schedule the last year or so. Perhaps, McCaw and others are waiting to see what may happen the next couple of years with possible realignment.

As long as you can count one FCS win toward bowl eligibility, we should absolutely be playing ONE (1) FCS game. No more, and not NDSU, James Madison or Sam Houston State, to name a few.

Good news is, when the time comes that FCS win isn’t necessary, even if still counted for bowl eligibility, we can just buy it out. But we’re not there yet.

If LU decides to go all in as an independent in football is it time to follow BYU and Notre Dames lead and create their own network?

BYUtv by all accounts has been very successful for them. Its in more homes than ESPNU and is comparable to the MLB and NFL networks. BYU gets the best of both worlds, any games not shown on an ESPN linear network is put on byutv with byutv also having the rights to show replays from ESPN televised games.

Notre Dame on the other hand decided to create a free streaming service. It remains to be seen how effective this strategy would be but it's definitely a solid way of getting their brand out there.

If LU wants to be a national brand and be on the same level as BYU and Notre Dame this could be a very effective (and if done correctly) profitable way of accomplishing that goal. Not to mention it gives the academic/spiritual side of the house a bigger platform.

Ill flame wrote: ↑August 4th, 2021, 2:28 am If LU decides to go all in as an independent in football is it time to follow BYU and Notre Dames lead and create their own network?

BYUtv by all accounts has been very successful for them. Its in more homes than ESPNU and is comparable to the MLB and NFL networks. BYU gets the best of both worlds, any games not shown on an ESPN linear network is put on byutv with byutv also having the rights to show replays from ESPN televised games.

Notre Dame on the other hand decided to create a free streaming service. It remains to be seen how effective this strategy would be but it's definitely a solid way of getting their brand out there.

If LU wants to be a national brand and be on the same level as BYU and Notre Dame this could be a very effective (and if done correctly) profitable way of accomplishing that goal. Not to mention it gives the academic/spiritual side of the house a bigger platform.

https://www.rokuguide.com/channels/liberty-university

There's nothing special to our Roku channel. We could and probably should do a better quality Liberty streaming channel with more than Convocation and LFSN stories on repeat.

All:

We’re starting the year (a thus far…non-covid year) ranked higher than:

1. Cal
2. Stanford
3. TCU
4. Michigan
5. BYU

Among many others. Let that sink in.

We need a conference realignment thread.