[Cider Jim]

And as a WVU fan, trust me, you don't want them playing at Liberty.

I considered watching a WVU Couch Burning video on YouTube, but I passed on it when I noticed it came with all these Warnings about profanity and nudity.

[Purple Haize]

And as a WVU fan, trust me, you don't want them playing at Liberty.

I considered watching a WVU Couch Burning video on YouTube, but I passed on it when I noticed it came with all these Warnings about profanity and nudity.

Ok. I MAY have been topless

[tyndal23]

A bit far, but LU would travel well enough for a 1 off road visit - similar to Vanderbilt - get Big 12 / SEC in the mix vs all ACC P5 games we have going would be cool. Preferably we pony up enough $ to do a 1 for 1 for each - if we were going to pay $25 million to join Conf. USA - splash that same dough around for 1 for 1 P5 games - it is doable. We visit for $250k , pay them $2.5m to come play - loss leader economics but builds the brand/base - it all works if we play 6-7 P5 as an Indy and is recouped when we renegotiate our ESPN deal when current contract is up ( my bi-weekly subliminal P5 message brought to you by Netflix )

Now if the game was played in Dallas....

Saving Dallas for a TX team or a west coast team like BYU who doesn’t want to travel 3,000 miles in November...( BYU fans on their board have clamored for TCU because of how many Dallas area alumni they had when they played them back in the day - but by all means lets play Norfolk State at home instead, so we get that hot dog money for 8500 fans that show up ...

[Purple Haize]

Which would be 8300 more fans than LU would get in Dallas

[BJWilliams]

I'm not calling WVU a upper tier team tyndal. As good as they are, (and they are still better than LU), they are what I would call a midtier P5. Even the midlevel P5s like them, OkSU, Purdue, Michigan State, Pitt, Mississippi State, etc. are not going to burn one of their three noncon slots for a matchup that would be a likely lose-lose scenario, even if we did put up a ton of money to sweeten the deal.

[tyndal23]

BJ - seemed like we covered this a while back - but for example Big 12 alternates 5 and 4 home conference games a year - Okie State played Central Michigan home and home. Better example, WVU eliminates their yearly FCS game ( this year it is JMU ) and upgrades to LU ( FBS) and even gets a favorable 1 for 1 $ deal on the year they have 5 home conference games already built in... wallah - they eliminate an FCS SOS and add a FBS team to SOS.

[BJWilliams]

Two things:
1) it's voilà not walla or wallah (I may be years removed from my last French class but I know that)
2) if I'm a mid-upper level P5 AD,in a conference with ideal positioning should the CFP move to expand to 8 (which obviously is is not happening this year and likely not happening next year) and I had a choice, I'd take the FCS, not sacrifice a home gate with a road game to a FBS that won't add much to their q-rating in the eyes of the CFP committee with a win, and torpedoes it with a loss.

[Cider Jim]

Plus, playing in Lynchburg would feel almost like a home game for WVU alumni. My guess is most of them have left the Mountain State to look for better paying jobs in the South, mostly in Virginia, North Carolina, and Maryland. Those alumni would have a much shorter drive to Lynchburg than returning to Morgantown.

[Purple Haize]

Home Gate>Road Game at LU

[tyndal23]

Yeah, BJ you are right, probably too much of a stretch for WVU - would have to be P5 cellar dwellers to negotiate a 1 for 1. Kansas, Rutgers,Vanderbilt, Oregon State types.

[Purple Haize]

Rutgers or Vandy could work. Until last year Syracuse was an ACC cellar dweller

[BJWilliams]

Yeah, BJ you are right, probably too much of a stretch for WVU - would have to be P5 cellar dwellers to negotiate a 1 for 1. Kansas, Rutgers,Vanderbilt, Oregon State types.

That's an improvement in your thinking, but we don't necessarily have to go with merely the cellar dwellers.

The way I see it there are 5 tiers of P5s (not the best names per se, but the best I could think of)

Tier 1- Elite

These are like (but not necessarily exclusive to) Clemson, Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Georgia and Notre Dame. These are the teams you pretty much expect to be competing and in the discussion for a spot in the CFP every year whether there are 4, 8, 12, 16, or 32 teams

Tier 2- Top Guys
These are most of your teams that are really good, but likely have to get past the elite level teams to get to the playoff on a yearly basis, and maybe every few years get a taste of being elite level. Here you'll find schools like Florida, Michigan State, Oklahoma State, Penn State, and USC.

Tier 3- Midlevel
Here is where you'll find (IMO) a lot of your P5s like West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Iowa, Iowa State, most of the Pac 12, Duke, Purdue, TCU, Texas (they're getting better Sly, don't get your panties in a bunch) Kentucky and Missouri.

Tier 4- Lower Level
Here you find the rest of your P5s save a few. These teams are usually the ones who are scraping into bowl games and filling the last bowl tie ins for their conference and playing the first week of Bowl Mania with the G5s

Tier 5- Bottom Feeders
These are the worst of the worst. Here you find Kansas, Rutgers and a couple other schools who are often leading the coaching carousel, lose to FCS and G5s by multiple touchdowns and are the schools the higher tier P5s call.

Tier 4 and 5 schools are okay for the short term, but if we want to be taken seriously as an FBS team, we are going to eventually start aiming for the upper level schools and be willing to take one way deals and 2 for 1s weighted to the P5.

[tyndal23]

Hmmm, Where have I heard that before?

[BJWilliams]

My point is, while that is a good goal to have, we have to understand that in the near term, we have to take what we can get. Flyaway games to Dallas and trying to negotiate 1 for 1 deals with the "big guns" isn't going to help us at all, and with the possibility of the CFP expanding in the next couple years, the mid-level P5s are going to be tougher to schedule because they are going to want to position themselves for that expansion. Our best bet is to get 1 or 2 big guns on the road and schedule winnable G5 games to help establish ourselves where we are. Boise State didn't get to the level they are trying to schedule a bunch of power schools. Can we get there? Im sure we can, and Im sure a lot of the board at large has a similar sentiment. This is something that cannot be rushed.

[Ewglenn]

Winning cures a lot of issues. If we were going 9-3 or 10-2 every year with the occasional 11-1 or 12-0 then we can get a lot to go our way.

[tyndal23]

My point is, while that is a good goal to have, we have to understand that in the near term, we have to take what we can get. Flyaway games to Dallas and trying to negotiate 1 for 1 deals with the "big guns" isn't going to help us at all, and with the possibility of the CFP expanding in the next couple years, the mid-level P5s are going to be tougher to schedule because they are going to want to position themselves for that expansion. Our best bet is to get 1 or 2 big guns on the road and schedule winnable G5 games to help establish ourselves where we are. Boise State didn't get to the level they are trying to schedule a bunch of power schools. Can we get there? Im sure we can, and Im sure a lot of the board at large has a similar sentiment. This is something that cannot be rushed.

Right - my stance has been all along you have to define what you are going to be as an Independent - Boise St and Fresno St went and played anyone anywhere non con - but they are in a conference - not even close to what I am talking about - P5 Equivalent as an Indy - you have to state it, and schedule it - and since it takes 5-7 years in advance - you schedule bottom tiered P5 schools 1 for 1 and OR give up your FCS home game and take 7 road games and 5 home games. Suicide for any normal school that doesn’t have a national recruiting draw, but LU does based on Christian Conservative - is that draw good enough to interest enough 4 stars to come with only 4 P5 games so that you can actually win them ? I say NO - is it enough to be able to say we are P5 Equivalent and play every conference year in and year out - I say YES. A decade from the time you start that, you are solidified enough to do 1 for 1 with most anyone. Recruits see G5 vs P5 offer 90/10 over “hey they won the Idaho Potato Bowl “ last year. I haven’t seen 1 person complain about having 4 P5 teams on our schedule but my concept of 2-3 more seems ludicrous for some reason...and I am not proposing scheduling OU/USC/Ohio State in 1st 10 years - just anyone who is P5 or equivalent. That scheduling philosophy alone is difference between averaging 79 and 85 per recruiting class...

[Cider Jim]

Maybe you guys are right. Maybe scheduling Auburn last year helped us sign their backup QB Malik Willis.

[BJWilliams]

I think the reason why a lot of us are not wanting to load up on P5s (especially my Tier 3 and up P5s) is the risk isn't worth the potential reward. Is it worth it to schedule the P5s who are trying to position themselves for the potential CFP expansion at this juncture? Not really in my view. It doesn't benefit them to play us, and it doesn't benefit us to potentially get blasted 63-7 every year 6 times per year.

[ballcoach15]

I don't know where to put this, so I decided to put it under WVU.

I saw a neat bumper sticker in Georgia today:

PUNTERS ........ARE PEOPLE ALSO