[ballcoach15]

Alabama, Georgia, LSU

[Class of 20Something]

Finebaum just tweeted the same 8 team playoff I did in the other thread.

[Purple Haize]

Alabama, Georgia, LSU

LSU is ranked #11

[Logic]

Indy for life. We can do it. Already have those marquee games scheduled!

[ballcoach15]

Norte Dame. Is in playoff as independent, and they did not play a killer schedule.

[rogers3]

If endowments help one of the podcast I listen to pointed out that LU's is twice that of Auburn's.

My guess is that this is some made up figure. In the past we've seen the mention of endowments related to income from online or the ascribed value of the failities. The real question would be how much cash is in reserve and how it was acquired. I'm sure Auburn has tons of cash on hand and that they acquired it the way endowments typically are developed- through giving. Fake news is certainly a two-way street; is it in this case?

[Liberty22]

Norte Dame. Is in playoff as independent, and they did not play a killer schedule.

26 toughest schedule. Wouldn’t call that easy.

https://www.teamrankings.com/college-fo ... h-by-other

[LUDad]

Norte Dame. Is in playoff as independent, and they did not play a killer schedule.

But they have the TV ratings

[ballcoach15]

With schedule rankings, I notice the top 6 and 9 of stop 10 are SEC schools. I'd like to see Golden Dommers play SEC west schedule.

[tyndal23]

I haven’t researched it, but does Army, Umass, LU etc - do the Independents automatically count as best G5 representative or was there something formal the G5 conferences did with NY6 bowl/Playoff committee ? OR is this another thing we would have to lobby for - if for example we went 12-0 next year - are we in a NY6 bowl as best G5 if highest ranked at the time ?

[Purple Haize]

I haven’t researched it, but does Army, Umass, LU etc - do the Independents automatically count as best G5 representative or was there something formal the G5 conferences did with NY6 bowl/Playoff committee ? OR is this another thing we would have to lobby for - if for example we went 12-0 next year - are we in a NY6 bowl as best G5 if highest ranked at the time ?

Originally ND had their special carve out because, well, they are ND. Not sure what the new wording is, but in the beginning it was ND by itself and independents were on their own.

[CCWMichael]

With schedule rankings, I notice the top 6 and 9 of stop 10 are SEC schools. I'd like to see Golden Dommers play SEC west schedule.

Bowl season is here so the proof will be in the pudding.
Last year the SEC was 4-5; I would not call that impressive by any measure.

[ballcoach15]

Don't put much stock in conference bowl records, some teams come to play, while some are just glad to be there.

[FlamesHighontheTide]

So, my uncle is a booster with the university of Alabama and he is in the know. . . so he says haha.

Point is, Bama has offered to play UCF whenever they want to and yet UCF has yet to make that deal. Bama did that when Boise State was the G5 program to beat and Boise didn't accept it.

If UCF wants to make real noise in crashing the CFP then they need to #1 not play an FCS school. #2 They need to schedule either Florida, Miami or Florida State every single year (Florida has openly said they would love a 2 for 1 with UCF). #3 They need to schedule atleast 2 other P5 schools and one must be ranked. Finally, if they must schedule a G5 then schedule someone like Boise State, Troy, App State or even Army.

Heck, schedule good ole LU and watch the Freeze ice them!

For the record, UCF does not deserve title of 2017 Co-National Champion. (Rant over)

[thepostman]

They won't do 2 for 1's so that is the hang up...they are in a tough situation because unlike a lot of G5 schools they make good money for home games and don't want to risk having 5 home games some years.

I get where they are coming from but I also understand the view point of P5 schools. There is nothing in it for them to help G5 schools.

[tyndal23]

Which is exactly why LU is in such great uniquie place if we want to be - we can afford to do 1 off games against everyone and play them for less than they would pay for an FCS school or G5 school but get benefit of P5 equivalent ( if we schedule enough ) we can also afford to pay a lower tier P5 to come as a 1 for 1 or a 1 off. LU can commit to running Athletic Department at a loss for x amount of years and even do 5 home games vs 6 - commit to establishing LU as a National Brand and play P5 competition ( and yes 6 P5 and 6G5 are about all that will work with occasional 7/5 if BYU and ND are in the mix - win all G5 u still bowl ) . EXAMPLE PAC 10 - we wil come play 1st game every year and only charge $250k. Anyone wanting to come to Lynchburg we will pay $1.25m. Big 12 - week 2, Big 10, week 3 etc. YES this is a repeat post - but for some new posters to grasp what neat position we can be in.

[Chris Lang]

In fairness to the current system, and UCF’s honestly remarkable accomplishment, Saying the system is broken bc they haven’t gotten in is pretty flawed.

They are sentenced to a G5 conference schedule. They basically can’t help that. But they have 4 other games to prove themselves worthy to the committee. What did they choose to do with those 4 games?

They scheduled South Carolina State (FCS), Florida Atlantic (C-USA), @ UNC, and a home game against Pitt.

Not exactly the choices you make if you are concerned about making an impression. Sure, they won, and deserve to be about where they are. But that’s it.

If they had instead gone on the road to 2 top 25 level P5’s and worked in a mid-level home P5 like Pitt, that might catch some attention. I know that getting these teams on the schedule isn’t easy, but it can be done.

Years ago, Jeff Barber said he was not interested in doing 2-for-1s with other FCS schools just to make LU more attractive as an at-large playoff candidate. (This was before the Big South got its auto bid, and when schools like Appalachian State were still FCS.) He said he felt Liberty was above that. Danny White is on the record as saying essentially the same thing as UCF's AD. The problem is that the game is completely stacked against someone like UCF to make it unless it decides to play a bunch of 2-for-1s and play four high-level opponents in the non-conference. As we all know, non-conference scheduling is done far in advance, so it's hard to predict who is going to be good. As bad as UNC is now, the Heels aren't that far removed from playing in the ACC championship game.

I get Danny White's point. UCF is a large school in Orlando with a great facility that shouldn't have to play twice at Alabama just to get the Tide to come once. But is his goal to look like a big boy school or actually have a chance to make the playoff? Because it's clear that the way things are presently constituted, they aren't making the playoff unless they find a way to schedule up significantly.

[BlueBlood]

UCF needs to schedule 4 historically good (or at least decent) P5s period. Playing 1 or 2 P5s doesn't cut it. They only get 4 slots per year that they can fit a P5 in. They need to make the most of those 4 weeks. Then, they need to hope that a few of their AAC opponents are good enough to be viewed as P5-like by the committee.

Liberty has a clear advantage by not being locked into 8 G5 games per year.

[FlamesHighontheTide]

2020

Sep 05 - @ Virginia Tech
Sep 12 - NC A&T
Sep 19 - @ Western Kentucky
Sep 26 - FIU
Oct 03 - @ Bowling Green
Oct 10 - Louisiana-Monroe
Oct 17 - @ Syracuse
Oct 24 - Southern Miss
Oct 31 - Open
Nov 07 - @ Virginia
Nov 14 - Western Carolina
Nov 21 - @ NC State
Nov 28 - Mass

Hypothetical post in regards to the UCF discussion:

Looking at our 2020 schedule and let's say we buy out the Western Carolina game to get a home game with like a Kansas or Indiana. Also, lets say we buy out the North Carolina A&T and replace that game with home against ECU or ODU. Play along, what if we win all 12 games. That would be 5 power 5 wins and 4 of them on the road against teams that at one point in 2018 were ranked. Then we beat a power 5 team at home. Would this be a better resume' than UCF's of this year or last year in regards to the playoff committee?

[thepostman]

It is impossible to even say that because who knows how good any of these programs will be in 2020. That is the tough part about scheduling years in advance, you can't predict how good or how bad a team will be.

[FlamesHighontheTide]

True, just fun to lay out a hypothetical. They would have a conference title while we wouldn't and this year the committee played that card.

[BlueBlood]

Agree that it is impossible to say, but if the teams perform per their average - Yes wins against VT, Cuse, UVA, NC St and Indiana + remainder G5s (or less) would be better than a win against Pitt + remainder G5s (or less).

[LUDad]

At the very least we will be gathering more/better bowl tie-ins over the next few years.

[Logic]

If endowments help one of the podcast I listen to pointed out that LU's is twice that of Auburn's.

My guess is that this is some made up figure. In the past we've seen the mention of endowments related to income from online or the ascribed value of the failities. The real question would be how much cash is in reserve and how it was acquired. I'm sure Auburn has tons of cash on hand and that they acquired it the way endowments typically are developed- through giving. Fake news is certainly a two-way street; is it in this case?

Not to hijack the thread...but in regards to endowment:

1. From 2007 until 2016 we built large cash reserves...had over a billion in liquid cash. Not buildings, not land...liquid cash.
2. 2016 we took a billion in cash and sunk it into long-term equities...call it an endowment if you will.
3. That number is now up to 1.6 or so - maybe more.
4. That is separate from operating revenue and separate from total assets including buildings and land.

As of the latest 990’s I could find:

Total Assets - 2.5 B
Total Liabilities - 470 M
Total Net - 2.1 B

Of the Total Net Assets:

Temporary savings (cash) - 154 M
Accounts Receivable - 100 M
Investments (publicly traded) - 389 M
Investments (other) securities) - 730 M

Official end of 2016 Endowment - 1.29 Billion


This info is public and readily available at IRS.gov. And we filed with the IRS as Endowment....so that 1.3 Billion is officially “endowment” as recognized by the IRS.

[Yacht Rock]

LOL.

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d16 ... 333.90.asp

Take a look at see that the endowment grew by 733% from the beginning to the end of fiscal year 2015.

That's a change in accounting. We all know that the endowment at LU isn't accounted for the same way it is at other universities.

Most of the time it's an apples and oranges argument to compare our endowment to other schools.