- August 4th, 2006, 1:04 am
#23449
Some general points in addition to other arguments...
First, there cannot be any serious aspirations to jump to I-A without a long run of success at the I-AA level. To be sure other schools have made the move much sooner; however, to note a couple who have been mentioned, FAU had Schnellenberger and USF had Lee Roy Selmon leading the way (we won't discuss resources). Without this success, what existing I-A conference would take Liberty University? We can already count out the ACC and SEC; so , with membership in any other existing conference we can project the annual travel budget alone to approach $2M-$3M for all current sports. Also, while some schools are experiencing rapid growth, institutional expenses are keeping pace. While there are potentially more dollars to access through student fees and charging students for admission, capital costs make gains associated with enrollment negligible for the purposes of comparison. Of course, LU could go it alone and be an independent; however, I believe that we are all sophisticated enough to know that with revenue sharing and other membership benefits, it would be even beyond Jerry, Jerry Jr., or even Terry to make that move (I hope).
Second, while the discussion re. LU's jump to I-A makes good discussion board fodder, the holisitc relevance of such a move cannot be understated. WHO really wants to go I-A, and are they willing to make the sacrifices necessary to do it? After my days in the LUAD, I worked in a I-A mid-major dept. Everyday was a struggle, and it is a struggle that affects the entire campus. We were borrowing money from the bookstore to pay the bills. Eighty-cents of every dollar we raised went toward scholarship costs until the state legislature raised our tuition by 15%, which immediately put us $1M behind on our scholarship costs for the next year. IF LU was to seriously entertain jumping, it has to come from somwhere else other than the Mansion or Hancock - and from more than the core group that has kept LU financially above water since its inception. It's great to see Flames Club donation records being broken. That is certainly a step in the right direction. But an all time dollar record of $179K in '05 will never get it done - what is that 12-15 full's and no scholly's endowed? Without the Flames Club being able to fully fund all scholarships and getting some level of endowment, a jump would be unwise. In order to do that, more people have to be involved and find LU sports relevant enough to donate regularly. Personally, I would prefer a lot of people giving a little than a few people giving a lot - that's how long-term growth and relevance is established (and it might make A.L. Williams less afraid to look at the Caller ID).
I believe that Barber is the right man for the job; however, he has huge obstacles to overcome. Many if not most of the alumni are apathetic toward LU sports. They never had to "pay" to get into games. So, for many, a financial association was never established or fostered with the Ath Dept. This has helped lead to an ethos that Barber will have a hard time breaking down. This a problem that pervades LU. From our days as students, we saw that when the going got tough, Falwell reached out to the same small number of friends to help. Very rarely were students asked to give - I concede that some eras were asked more frequently. I have found this to be the case as an alumnus. As such, we were and continue to be somewhat robbed of an opportunity to have some sense of ownership. Sure, Falwell will take your money, but there is a lack of organization to it. The Alumni Assoc has a place to enter your credit card info, but how about providing some giving levels with benefits, a nice quarterly magazine (if it is "The World's Most Exciting University", then why do we only get irregular, skimpy newsletters?), etc. (Quid pro quo - Cynical? Yes, but this is the real world...altruism only goes so far) While the Flames Club is more organized, its donor base will have to expand by a large margin.
I could go into other issues such as teaching schools being able to provide the level of institutional support to athletics that research-intensive schools can; however, I will spare the weary. Since SuperJon and Haize broached the topic of projects, I can recommend a couple of resources that can add to the debate. These are the Fulks Report on the NCAA site (for macro data), and the EADA information on the Equity in Athletics web page (for micro data - some issues of reliability however). These datasets, with some other resources, can provide most interested parties with some insight of the feasibility of making the jump to I-A from I-AA - especially when considered in time-series format.
- By olldflame
- By aredd33
- By LUOrange