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Mr. Barber,
What is the status of expanding the football division of the Big South other than Presbyterian in 2008? How many years with six football schools are needed for an automatic bid and will Gardner Webb join the Big south for the other sports?
Dr. Charles Hughes
Lynchburg, Va.
Dr. Hughes,
The Big South Conference is currently looking at adding one, and possibly two, "associate" members which would only participate in football. If things work according to plan, this new team(s) would come into the league in 2008 but because the NCAA mandates two years of participation before they can count towards automatic qualification for the FCS playoffs, it would be 2010 before our conference champion would receive an automatic birth in the playoffs.
Gardner Webb will be coming into the league in all sports for the 2008-09 athletic season.
Jeff Barber
El Scorcho wrote:post at your own risk.
Mr. Barber,
Why do the hockey team and the basketball team have games at the same time? Why can't one play an afternoon game and one an evening game? It is hard to go attend and support both teams while they are playing at the same time.
The time was changed for the wrestling match the other day so there would be a good attendance at the basketball game. I am sure if promoted there would be good attendance at both sporting events.
Thanks for your time.
Jim Lott
Jim,
No one is more disappointed then we are when there is an overlap between our games and other events on our campus. When this happens, both events are being hurt and we are continually working on this so it does not happen in the future. Hockey is not part of the athletics department but rather a club sport. Our schedule is dictated by the Big South Conference and hockey makes their own schedule and they set their times for matches. We do try to keep them separate which works sometimes and sometimes it doesn't. Changing the wrestling times was easier because both sports fall under LU Athletics. Start times are often determined by the travel time for the visiting teams. As you can see, there are a number of factors that go into this, but again, we are constantly working to keep there from being conflicts in this area.
Jeff Barber
Mr. Barber,
Larger schools always offer official looking jerseys from their various athletics teams. Is there any chance Liberty will be offering these in the near future?
Paul Boyce
Matoaca, Va.
Paul,
In the past our bookstore had football jerseys available for both adults and children. There were several complications that occurred that made it not possible to have them this year. The bookstore is continuing to work on this and we do expect to have football jerseys available prior to the 2007 season. In addition we hope to have basketball jerseys available before next season.
Jeff Barber
El Scorcho wrote:post at your own risk.
JLFJR wrote:Thanks for your input, PA! Very helpful.
Mr. Barber,
I have two concerns about the direction of the football program. With all of the good things that are happening to the program right now, including the overall performance on the field, better recruiting, facilities, and attendance, there are two areas of concern going forward.
1. Poor conference affiliation - Even though I see improvements to the teams that are currently in the Big South Conference it is way behind the Southern and the Colonial conferences in terms of scheduling and performance. Also the Big South Conference does not give the winner an automatic berth in the playoffs. I would think that we would want to be on the same "playing field" as James Madison, Richmond, or William and Mary as opposed to teams currently in the Big South. Are we currently looking into the possibility of joining a more competitive conference or hope that the Big South performance improves?
2. Poor scheduling - This is related somewhat to the first point. Last year, we scheduled two Division II teams and likely to schedule two more in 2007. This is in addition to other teams of poor caliber in and outside of the Big South. My question is what is being done in the area of scheduling to at least give us a chance in getting into the playoffs. I feel that we need to schedule more teams such as Appalachian State, Furman, James Madison (teams that compete year-in and year-out for playoff berths and the national title). If we don't schedule these types of teams, we have no shot of making the playoffs. The Big South just doesn't carry much weight for the selection committee to get us in unless we can beat teams like the above. For example, the only reason Coastal Carolina got into the playoffs last year was with the win over Furman. If Coastal loses that game or doesn't schedule them then they have no chance of making the playoffs. I feel that the team (LU) deserves at least a chance right now of making the playoffs.
Steve Vandiver
Wilmington, DE
Steve,
The Big South's RPI for football continues to improve. We are a much younger conference than the Southern Conference and our teams are fairly young in football versus other teams around the country. There is a strong commitment from the leadership of the Big South to grow in our football so that we can compete with any Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) conference in the country. A conference must have six teams as playing members before you can receive an automatic berth in the playoffs. Since we currently have five teams, the only way a member of our conference can get into the playoffs is to finish high enough at the end of the regular season that they would get one of the 16 spots available after all the Automatic Qualifier (AQ) spots are filled. Our conference is currently involved with two other schools about the possibility of becoming an associate member (football only). If that were to happen by 2008, then the Big South would get an automatic bid for the playoffs in 2010.
A general rule of thumb for getting into the playoffs is that a team must have seven wins over teams from the Football Championship Subdivision and the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS and formerly Division I-A). It is not so much playing a high-ranking FCS team as it is winning those seven games. Coastal Carolina got in the playoffs as they had the necessary seven wins, won our conference and was ranked 16th at the end of the season. Scheduling is very difficult for teams in the Big South because we have only four conference games; therefore, we need to schedule seven non-conference games where most conferences are only scheduling three non-conference games. September is a difficult time to find games because everyone is trying to find games that precede their conference schedule. We will begin playing Presbyterian College next year which will help with scheduling and if we pick up two more conference teams for 2008, then that will be a big help as well. We have started working on scheduling games for the next ten years or so which will help us down the road.
Jeff Barber
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