Anything and everything about Liberty Flames football. Your comments on games, recruiting and the direction of the program as we move into new era.

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#645234
sstaedtler wrote: September 18th, 2022, 10:58 pm Imagine being a 2023 recruit and not playing one Power 5 team your whole entire time here. Not one 50,000 seat stadium to feel what it is like. Not one chance to show what you can do to scouts against higher competition. Meanwhile, our season ticket sales will plummet. We will get few road fans, lower attendance, and no higher conference will ever want us with terrible atmospheres getting 16,000 fans a game.
And on top of all of that, THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING!
By willflop
Posts
#645237
Damian had an article on the WF cancellation along with some Ian quotes. Ian boiled it down to finances and competition. P5s do not want to play at G5 venues, as they make way more hosting. Secondly, P5s don’t want to play strong competition, referencing the recent upsets that have been occurring. He also stated that its these P5s reaching out the Liberty to cancel, not the other way around.

We’ll see if that holds, but it wouldn’t surprise me if WF adds APP in our place (saw twitter rumors on this), which contradicts both points to a degree. The competition aspect makes sense, with Liberty on the rise, but the financial part doesn’t entirely. 2 for 1s are stacked in their favor. And, why were these all scheduled in the first place if that was their concern? I think the rise in Liberty’s public toxicity may be more of a culprit than we want to admit. Take the recent UMASS tweet…



They can do what they want, and I don’t think this will bother LU fans as much as they think. Every day is pride day in our culture at large. My main takeaway is that this is not coming from some UMASS student social club or diversity department, but straight out of the athletic department (one of their assistant ADs said it was a long time in the making). I know politically Massachusetts is about as different than Lynchburg as you can get, but I also viewed the two schools in a bit of underdog alliance, so I take this as an obvious sign they would cancel culture Liberty if they could (there is no separation of sex and sports with the UMAS athletic department). I recognize a lot of this is self inflicted on our part, either way.

I have no reason to think UVA, UNC, WF, and DUKE are not doing it, largely, for the same reason. What's the evidence? Every single one of them has reached out to us to cancel, and it can't be a coincidence, and the stated reasons don't entirely make sense. Add in the fact that these are the best regional P5s we could play, where we won't be completely dominated, and we quickly are out of options. Do we really think Syracuse will give us another 2 for 1? Never. What options are left?

All that to say, the move to CUSA may have been more of a life raft than we think. I’m also viewing the move to CUSA and lack of P5s as a bit of a reset button on our move to FBS. Not in the sense that the sky is falling, but the independent path has proven it was not sustainable long term. It served its purpose though, getting our foot in the door and into a conference, along with four years to build our FBS infrastructure, staff, and roster. Going back to 2018, if you were told we could join CUSA but it would result in no P5 games until all the dust settles for four years, we’d all take it. I think 2023 is that point, we just have a huge head start.
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By BlueBlood
Posts
#645242
I aways thought that P5 scheduling would get more difficult if LU wasn't a "sure win". The P5s that signed those original contracts had no idea that LU would be this competitive.

I think you will see less mid-to-lower tier P5s risk it. Also, the schools with more liberal fan bases have additional concerns.

Higher level P5s in the deep south is probably our new sweet spot (SEC-SEC). Those teams aren't as scared of a good G5 team and their fan bases like Jesus a little more.

Agree that C-USA may end up being more of a life raft than we originally thought.
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By sstaedtler
Posts
#645243
the schools least likely to cancel on us over politics: (According to Niche)

1. BYU
2. Utah State
3. SMU
4. Texas A&M
5. Auburn
6. Arkansas St.
7. Alabama
8 . Arkansas
9. Troy
10. Wyoming
11. Baylor
12. TCU
13. Kansas St.
14. South Carolina
15. Oklahoma State
16. Ole Miss
17. La. Tech
18. Kentucky
By tyndal23
Posts
#645244
Only hope for big time football in next 30 years is a quick announcement and implementation of 30-35k on campus student body along with a P5 level Athletic budget. Not holding my breath. We wouldn’t have had a single cancellation without move to CUSA and IF the mediocre P5 stopped scheduling due to “fear of losing” and only bigger Programs scheduled us - so be it, that is natural progression. Those late to the party and just now crying about G5 and scheduling and the bitter pill of G5 - we chose it and most embraced it - so deal with it and quit whining. Just win baby...
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#645246
tyndal23 wrote: September 19th, 2022, 12:33 pm Only hope for big time football in next 30 years is a quick announcement and implementation of 30-35k on campus student body along with a P5 level Athletic budget. Not holding my breath. We wouldn’t have had a single cancellation without move to CUSA and IF the mediocre P5 stopped scheduling due to “fear of losing” and only bigger Programs scheduled us - so be it, that is natural progression. Those late to the party and just now crying about G5 and scheduling and the bitter pill of G5 - we chose it and most embraced it - so deal with it and quit whining. Just win baby...
I agree, "just win", no matter who is on schedule.
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By Ill flame
Posts
#645247
For a school that only had 12,000 people at their stadium for a P5 home game last year and needed to play 2 FCS games to fill out their schedule this doesn't seem like a smart decision. I understand they are clinging to any relevance they can get so this isn't a bad marketing strategy but I hope they at least gave our AD a courtesy call to make sure they weren't burning any bridges. We are one of the few programs willing to give them a home game for some reason.
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By BlueBlood
Posts
#645248
tyndal23 wrote: September 19th, 2022, 12:33 pm We wouldn’t have had a single cancellation without move to CUSA
I don't know if this is true or not. Some of Ian's comments sure seem to make it sound like LU was approached by the other schools.
tyndal23 wrote: September 19th, 2022, 12:33 pm and IF the mediocre P5 stopped scheduling due to “fear of losing” and only bigger Programs scheduled us - so be it, that is natural progression.
Agree.
tyndal23 wrote: September 19th, 2022, 12:33 pm Just win baby...
Agree.
#645249
Ill flame wrote: September 18th, 2022, 11:32 pm We are going from playing the worst teams the P5 has to offer once or twice a year, with a good season being rewarded with a cure bowl appearance if we are lucky, to us playing for conference championships (which players/recruits love) and a shot at a NY6 bowl. From a strictly recruiting perspective we won't be hurting compared to what we are currently doing.

As for the attendance perspective thats where I have more concerns. These P5 home games might not move the needle much in recruiting but it definitely does with season ticket sales. With that being said, if fans can't get excited at a potentially 10+ win a year program maybe we are meant to be in C-USA.
Technically we shouldn't if we're honest but we also know that there's other reasons that we can assume caused us to only have this option in CUSA(out of desparation). That being said, it is beneficial that we are not in the Big South, yet we came in the FBS at a crazy time where we can likely be left back again. From a local and fan perspective, it doesn't look pretty for the upcoming seasons. Even if we get better recruits that want it play for Freeze or win championships, people don't care about CUSA. They'll just watch their VT or UVA games on tv and not come see LU play FIU and similar teams. Now, if we somehow get into the playoffs scenario coming up and beat a team in that (even though we would not have much challenge to prepare us for that team), then maybe some hype may come along. Well at least it'll occur at the end of the season :lol:
#645274
I think the CUSA is going to be more beneficial for LU than most people think. I can't wait to see Basketball in 2023. If the 9 CUSA school can stick together...it's going to be a fun hoops league.
As far as football...there's something that CUSA offers more than the other G5 conferences....a better chance to dominate the conference schedule. The AAC and Sunbelt have a lot of teams. But that actually can be a bad thing. Think about it this way....the Sunbelt will have 14 football and basketball teams. They will have 6 bowl tie-ins for football and 1 basketball autobid for all of those 14 teams.
CUSA will have 9 teams in 2023. They will have 5 bowl tie-ins and 1 at large basketball for those 9.
So the Sunbelt postseason odds are 6 out of 14 for football and 1 out of 14 for basketball.
CUSA's postseason odds are 5 out of 9 for football and 1 out of 9 for basketball. I like those odds a lot better.
Furthermore...with the football championship being extended to 12 teams...at least one G5 will get in. If LU can dominate the CUSA and win it perhaps 3 years in a row...the Flames will then constantly be in the conversation for that covered G5 bid...and the odds get greater and greater each time you finish at the top of a G5 conference that one special year the cards might fall in the right way. While at the same time in the Sunbelt there are so many teams they could end up eating their own...with something like Appy State winning one year, then Marshall, then Louisiana, then JMU. I think there's a better chance for LU to be consistently dominant in the CUSA. I think it could be a very good place to be in the new aligememt of things with the CFP. And it will be so nice to have regular season games that mean something.
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By paradox
Registration Days Posts
#645289
These major conference games were viewed as scheduled wins initially. We were mostly mediocre all those years in FCS. The Hugh Freeze factor is being understated. We're competitive now.

This past weekend is a glaring example. ACC team schedules us for a Homecoming win. And they're ranked. But easily could've been a three-touchdown embarrassing loss for them. They were more than fortunate to have won that game. Wake benefitted dearly from unforced errors by LU offense and poor officiating. Most notably, the insane no-call turf catch that led to their first TD. And the fact that not a single hold penalty was called during a pass play. Wake was holding most of game. They were getting blown off the ball. But yeah, can see why they don't wanna play us.
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By tyndal23
Posts
#645405
jack_sparrow81 wrote: September 21st, 2022, 10:07 pm Wasn't too many years ago that we were having the same conversation when we were in the Big South. It's been quite the ride.
And ending with a hurling up of Theme Park G5 Junk Food at the end of the ride until we realize it wasn’t the Ride that made us throw up, it was the G5 empty carbs no one made us eat, but we overpaid for and chose all on our own.
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