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

Moderators: jcmanson, Sly Fox, BuryYourDuke, Class of 20Something

By jimflamesfan
Registration Days Posts
#647028
I am so glad that the people that post OUT OF CUSA posts aren't the ones making the decisions in the Athletics department. I've been buying season tickets for about 15 years. (Even in the beginning when you didn't even really need a ticket cause the comfort inn kept a stack to give away....haha). I don't always know what my schedule is going to be like as a pastor. I do hate missing games...but I buy the season tickets anyway and usually I can go to them or I miss one and give the tickets away. The CUSA deal is great revenue for the schools, it's great exposure. It will probably only affect 1 home game...some years maybe 2. Next year as of now we have 7 home games instead of six. So people that are saying they may 'cancel their season tickets"....they're not going to do it. They are going to think about it and buy them anyway. We might even have a bigger student section for the weeknight game each year. CUSA made a pretty good media deal with double it's current payout and with two known media partners. And yet people complain. Most of the complaints involve somekind of fantasy that we will receive another conference invite or that we can just continue scheduling independent as if we were inserting games on a EA Sports schedule. It isn't going to happen. In the meantime, this looks like a good media deal for CUSA.
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By willflop
Posts
#647029
Our last game against Coastal was in 2015, the won we won 24 to 21. It was on one of the linear ESPN channels, probably news, but either way it was a Thursday night game and a good lively crowd. It was the staff ticket give away night with about 19k reported attendance, which is part of the reason. I know Thursdays are better anyway, but fundamentally I don't see why you can replicate that atmosphere on a Tuesday or Wednesday once a year. Our main exposure to Tue/Wed games are empty Mac stadiums in frigid November up north, so it does look really gross.
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By Tnobes
Posts
#647030
TH Spangler wrote: November 10th, 2022, 4:18 am I don't see my group attending any mid-week games. We don't care for night games to begin with. October games were our favorite. I'll think twice before buying season tickets 🤔.
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By flamesfilmguy
Registration Days Posts
#647031
Well, We've finally made it to the big time. our fan board finally resembles as P5 message board where some people will find something to complain about no matter how good that thing is for the program. smh. You guys realize that this will mean more eyeballs on the program right? And that this will only count for maybe 1-2 games a year? Heck the ACC makes every team play at least one thursday night game a year and it hasn't hurt them. I watch MAC games all the time. The Toledo ball state game on tuesday and the WMU/NIU game were highly entertaining. This is great for those of us who live in different states. I might not actually have to watch every game on my computer which is awesome. PLUS its more money! Also I think you guys far and away underestimate the ability for a bunch of college kids to get excited about a mid week football game and show up. every once in a while its nice to get your schools game out of the way during the week so you can make a trip home or enjoy the other games on saturday. Just my .02
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By TH Spangler
Registration Days Posts
#647032
Tnobes wrote: November 10th, 2022, 11:09 am
TH Spangler wrote: November 10th, 2022, 4:18 am I don't see my group attending any mid-week games. We don't care for night games to begin with. October games were our favorite. I'll think twice before buying season tickets 🤔.
:lol:

Night games are hard on us out of towners. Mid-week night games are worse. They're great if you're setting at home in the recliner watching on TV. 😔
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By CCWMichael
Posts
#647033
Hey recruits come visit on our empty Tuesday nights!
Families of players: sorry about your luck attending games. Band parents ----same.
Not worth the loss for 750. hey, who does not want to build their program but wants 750. Attendance is more profitable.

How will bye week rest look now?

Homecoming? Next year no OOC games in October.

My family purchasing season tickets to miss 2 or 3 games and increased FC membership prices. Seats will be empty all year and single tickets seems to be a better option.

Exposure? yeah this has helped the MAC.

We need a new commish now or find a way out to another conference.
H.O.R.R.I.B.L.E.
Last edited by CCWMichael on November 10th, 2022, 8:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
By CCWMichael
Posts
#647034
flamesfilmguy wrote: November 10th, 2022, 11:17 am Well, We've finally made it to the big time. our fan board finally resembles as P5 message board where some people will find something to complain about no matter how good that thing is for the program. smh. You guys realize that this will mean more eyeballs on the program right? And that this will only count for maybe 1-2 games a year? Heck the ACC makes every team play at least one thursday night game a year and it hasn't hurt them. I watch MAC games all the time. The Toledo ball state game on tuesday and the WMU/NIU game were highly entertaining. This is great for those of us who live in different states. I might not actually have to watch every game on my computer which is awesome. PLUS its more money! Also I think you guys far and away underestimate the ability for a bunch of college kids to get excited about a mid week football game and show up. every once in a while its nice to get your schools game out of the way during the week so you can make a trip home or enjoy the other games on saturday. Just my .02
NO. It has not helped the MAC one bit. Teams are still mired in trying to get there.
User avatar
By prototype
Registration Days Posts
#647035
jimflamesfan wrote: November 10th, 2022, 9:30 am I am so glad that the people that post OUT OF CUSA posts aren't the ones making the decisions in the Athletics department. I've been buying season tickets for about 15 years. (Even in the beginning when you didn't even really need a ticket cause the comfort inn kept a stack to give away....haha). I don't always know what my schedule is going to be like as a pastor. I do hate missing games...but I buy the season tickets anyway and usually I can go to them or I miss one and give the tickets away. The CUSA deal is great revenue for the schools, it's great exposure. It will probably only affect 1 home game...some years maybe 2. Next year as of now we have 7 home games instead of six. So people that are saying they may 'cancel their season tickets"....they're not going to do it. They are going to think about it and buy them anyway. We might even have a bigger student section for the weeknight game each year. CUSA made a pretty good media deal with double it's current payout and with two known media partners. And yet people complain. Most of the complaints involve somekind of fantasy that we will receive another conference invite or that we can just continue scheduling independent as if we were inserting games on a EA Sports schedule. It isn't going to happen. In the meantime, this looks like a good media deal for CUSA.
What he said^^^^^^^^^^^
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By stokesjokes
Registration Days Posts
#647036
TH Spangler wrote: November 10th, 2022, 8:24 am
Have_a_Gansett_2011 wrote: November 9th, 2022, 9:50 pm Ticket sales are going to absolutely plummet for those midweek games. There are a lot of people like me (in NoVa) that come down on Saturdays from places 2-4 hours away. Won't be possible midweek with work happening the next day for many of us. So disappointed in the deal, but it doesn't surprise me at all. Out of the CUSA as soon as possible! I almost don't care where we landed. it'd be great to negotiate a football only move with the big 12 as a partner for Gonzaga. I know BSU is already talked about in that specific scenario but something in that vein should absolutely be what we're exploring.
This, ASAP.
Y’all are just plain out of touch with reality. We could barely get into CUSA, but sure the B12 is gonna let us be a football only school.

Everyone wants to get to the top, some of y’all don’t want to take the steps to get there.

For CUSA to offer regularly scheduled nationally televised games is a huge win for the conference. I’ll take a game every Tuesday night in October if it means we’re on ESPN. That’s exposure. The alternative isn’t televised games on Saturday night in the Big 12. The alternative is streaming-only games and irrelevance.
By tyndal23
Posts
#647037
stokesjokes wrote: November 10th, 2022, 12:40 pm
TH Spangler wrote: November 10th, 2022, 8:24 am
Have_a_Gansett_2011 wrote: November 9th, 2022, 9:50 pm Ticket sales are going to absolutely plummet for those midweek games. There are a lot of people like me (in NoVa) that come down on Saturdays from places 2-4 hours away. Won't be possible midweek with work happening the next day for many of us. So disappointed in the deal, but it doesn't surprise me at all. Out of the CUSA as soon as possible! I almost don't care where we landed. it'd be great to negotiate a football only move with the big 12 as a partner for Gonzaga. I know BSU is already talked about in that specific scenario but something in that vein should absolutely be what we're exploring.
This, ASAP.
Y’all are just plain out of touch with reality. We could barely get into CUSA, but sure the B12 is gonna let us be a football only school.

Everyone wants to get to the top, some of y’all don’t want to take the steps to get there.

For CUSA to offer regularly scheduled nationally televised games is a huge win for the conference. I’ll take a game every Tuesday night in October if it means we’re on ESPN. That’s exposure. The alternative isn’t televised games on Saturday night in the Big 12. The alternative is streaming-only games and irrelevance.
I agree. Any future move up to a better conference is based on how many tv eyeballs you attract. If LU viewership leaps out way ahead of the other CUSA games on weeknights ( proving it isn’t just because there were no other games and people are actually watching because of LU - similar to how I watched Boise St and Fresno St years ago - because they were good and worth watching ). As for the home crowds and “made for tv” - administration is going to have to get very creative and have all hands on deck.
By willflop
Posts
#647038
And I think we have to remember that there's a difference between exposure and getting exposed. If your product is an empty high school/FCS grade stadium with scissor jacks in the end zone, the game may be entertaining for some viewers, but ultimately you get exposed. This is why, perhaps, the exposure "doesn't do anything" for the MAC teams. For Liberty, this is an opportunity to get actual positive exposure, if we can pull it off. Our stadium looks great on T.V., in my opinion, especially for what we are up against on mid week games. And, if we can produce a raucous student section and crowd, it's a real opportunity to show how we are different for 3.5 hours on national T.V. I think it will be enough of a novelty to pull it off, especially at first.
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By TH Spangler
Registration Days Posts
#647040
So are we looking at 1 "home" weekday game in October and that's it?

Will all games, for all teams be played on a week day in October? In other words will we have 1 home and 3 road games midweek in October?
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By sstaedtler
Posts
#647041
I don't think we had a lot of bargaining power here. We weren't in a great position. I like CBS Sports Network. They actually talk about our game instead of going on about the College Playoff. And the production quality is high. And we got back in with ESPN after CUSA foolishly casted them away years ago. I am not as much bothered by the midweek games as I am by our weak out of conference schedules without P5's. I worry both things combined could hurt recruiting. It's nice to be on SEC or ACC Network once in a while. Ian desperately needs to fix out out of conference schedule, at least in 2025-2026 where we lost the Wake games.
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By willflop
Posts
#647043
TH Spangler wrote: November 10th, 2022, 2:08 pm So are we looking at 1 "home" weekday game in October and that's it?

Will all games, for all teams be played on a week day in October? In other words will we have 1 home and 3 road games midweek in October?
Per the most recent article from Asor, it looks like we are required to have 2 home and 2 away in October. I'm not 100%, but it seems to imply that all October games will be linear on CBSN or one of the ESPNs.
C-USA membership approved a linear television-friendly scheduling format for football that sees all October league matchups played on midweek evenings. The broadcast partners will share C-USA’s October weeknight football games on linear television across CBS Sports Network, ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU. These games will be played between the days of Tuesday and Friday night, with each CUSA member expected to have two home and two road games played during the midweek during October each season.

https://www.aseaofred.com/new-conferenc ... -exposure/
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By jmclaughlin
Posts
#647045
Another important note: Coach Freeze has said, on multiple occasions, that he loves mid-week games and has been petitioning Ian to make that happen. It does give us a chance to capture an audience and prospective athletes eyeballs in an off peak time. Baseball is winding down and the NBA is just starting. October is the perfect month to have a mid week.
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By Ill flame
Posts
#647046
Now that all the details are out I'll have to say this deal is a step up from our current tv arrangement and a big step up from C-USAs old arrangement with all the games on Facebook and other obscure channels.

Previously we would get one nationally televised game a year (on espnu) and that was it across all sports. C-usa will now have a total of 26 nationally televised games during the regular season. Is it reasonable to think we could get 5+ games televised, plus a potential conference championship game?

On the basketball side I don't remember ever having a home game on national TV. There will now be a total of 24 games on linear TV meaning at a minimum we should get 3-4. I prefer to think we will get chosen as tier 1 games more than most other teams resulting in more televised games. I like that we also get to keep all of our other games on espn+ which was a concern of mine about c-usa.

I also saw that the men's and women's basketball, baseball and softball conference championship games will be televised along with the semifinal games for men's basketball. This will also be a big improvement over those games previously being on espn+ in the asun.

I'm still not crazy about the midweek games but theres no doubt that we should get exponentially more exposure across more sports with this new deal. Hopefully the mid week games are just a short term inconvenience that will catapult us to greater heights.
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By flamesfilmguy
Registration Days Posts
#647047
CCWMichael wrote: November 10th, 2022, 12:08 pm
NO. It has not helped the MAC one bit. Teams are still mired in trying to get there.
it is literally one of the only reasons half the MAC schools are actually still in FBS and have the money to survive... there are a lot of undesirable things about the MAC that make it very difficult to market. They found a niche on week nights and marketed the heck out of #MACtion and while you don't think its worked, most people see getting a game that involves Ball state and Toledo on national television REGARDLESS of what night it is as a huge success. I hate to burst everyone's bubble but we aren't BYU or ND yet. As others in this thread have already said we can make it there and we can compete with a bad BYU team on the field now. but We don't have even close to the name recognition that those schools. We can get there but we have to take the steps neccesary to get there.
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By TH Spangler
Registration Days Posts
#647048
I hope this works for Liberty, Cusa and most fans. But I'm not sure it will for us, we drive up from NC. Weekday, 7 or 8 pm kick. Home at 1 am?

Plus it's on TV.
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By CCWMichael
Posts
#647050
LUOrange wrote: November 10th, 2022, 1:35 pm #RiseWithUsOnTuesdaysOrWednesdays
As the CEO I love this.
I am directing my directors and program managers to push positivity because nobody likes change. We will have a new signature line that states "Big opportunity."
Likewise when employees begin to grumble we will begin with and foster the statement "assume the best intent".
Push these as our cultural change and we will develop the satisfaction we require.
You are our leaders ... go lead.
#RisewithUsOnTuesdaysOrWednesdays
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By jbock13
Registration Days Posts
#647051
You guys act like every home game will be on Tuesdays now.

Wahhhhhhhhhhh

(It won't hurt you to take the next day off) :wink:
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By jack_sparrow81
Registration Days Posts
#647052
I think it would help us with exposure-sunbelt teams play alot of games on weekdays. This past Saturday for example, did we really get that much exposure playing the same time as UGA/Tenn and ending while the Bama /LSU game was starting. From what I remember that Coastal game in 2015 was on ESPNU or even ESPN2 (maybe stretching there). Growing up, I used to look forward to Thursday night football on ESPN-still remember the night UVA upset FSU in the 90s. Now the NFL needs to drop Thursday, but that's a whole different topic.
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By CCWMichael
Posts
#647056
My takes from a Thursday slate.
Memphis empty stadium really is a great amplifier of their sound system.
Louisiana the white seating somehow is a poor compliment to their field.
People I watched with said it is obvious their fans don't care, why would I.
As a small G% fan I know that statement is not true but if we really want positive exposure the seats will need filled.
I hope we can do it but not feeling good about it.
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By TH Spangler
Registration Days Posts
#647058
Day and time is set for a TV audience. So that's were my 6 season tickets will be next year. It pains me to say that. Trying to stay positive. CUSA basketball will be great, how's that?
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